"That is a lie."
Julian's voice cracks through the boardroom before anyone else can move. I step in after him and the whole room turns toward us at once. Men in dark suits. Two women near the far wall. Files open. Phones face down. Elias is standing by the long window with his hands at his sides like he has nowhere safe to put them, and at the center of the table sits a man I have never met but somehow know immediately.
Sebastian Cross.
He has Nathaniel's eyes.
Nathaniel goes completely still beside me. Not frozen. Worse. Like every part of him just pulled tight enough to split. The chairman clears his throat. "Mr. Thornton, please control yourself."
Julian laughs once. It is a terrible sound. "You just told me another man is my father in a room full of strangers. I think control left
