Chapter 14 - JULIAN'S CONFESSION
We found Julian that night.
Not because our investigators were brilliant.
Because he wanted to be found.
He walked into the original Aurelia Grand at 11:18 p.m.
The same hotel where he had ordered me removed.
Security called immediately.
I arrived twenty minutes later.
Julian sat alone in the dark lobby.
No guests.
No Bianca.
No attorney.
He looked exhausted.
I stopped several feet away.
“You told my father you'd protect me.”
Julian looked up.
“So you found the letter.”
“You met me on purpose.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more than another lie would have.
“Richard sent you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get close to you.”
My hands went cold.
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“How long was I a target?”
He looked down.
“Three weeks.”
I almost laughed.
“Three weeks?”
“That was the plan.”
“What happened after three weeks?”
“I fell in love with you.”
The words hung between us.
I hated how much I wanted to believe them.
“You expect that to fix everything?”
“No.”
“You cheated.”
“Yes.”
“You lied about your father.”
“Yes.”
“You hid financial losses.”
“Yes.”
“You let Bianca inside our company.”
“Yes.”
“You threw me out of my own property.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
For the first time, his voice broke.
“Because she told me Richard had the authentication device.”
“She didn't.”
“I know that now.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That if I didn't make you believe our marriage was over, Richard would take you.”
I stared at him.
“You humiliated me to protect me?”
“No.”
He looked directly at me.
“I humiliated you because I was angry.”
That answer surprised me.
He didn't hide behind noble motives.
“I was angry that everything I built still belonged partly to your family.”
“Partly?”
“Fine.”
He almost smiled.
“Mostly.”
Then the smile disappeared.
“I was angry that my father was right about one thing.”
“What?”
“No matter how successful I became, I could never own the ground.”
“That mattered more than me?”
“No.”
“But it mattered.”
“Yes.”
Finally.
Truth.
Ugly truth.
Julian stood.
“Bianca approached me fourteen months ago.”
“She was already working with Richard?”
“Yes.”
“And you started sleeping with her.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
I looked away.
There are betrayals strategy can explain.
That wasn't one of them.
“Why?”
“I don't have an answer that makes it better.”
“Good.”
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“At everyone.”
“That isn't an excuse.”
“I know.”
For a long moment, we stood in the lobby we had built together.
Then Julian placed a small object on the table.
My authentication device.
I stared at it.
“How did you get that?”
“I took it from Richard's man.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Why didn't you bring it immediately?”
“Because Richard thinks I still have it.”
I looked up.
“You're bait.”
“Yes.”
“And he told me to bring you to him.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“He called me first.”
Julian reached into his coat.
He removed a recorder.
“He wants me to exchange the device for documents he believes can destroy the Vale Trust.”
“What documents?”
“Proof of what your grandfather did in 2009.”
“What did he do?”
Julian hesitated.
Then said something I wasn't prepared to hear.
“He falsified one bank record.”
I stepped back.
“No.”
“My father has the original.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
May you like
If Julian was telling the truth, Richard's lawsuit wasn't entirely fabricated.
And the man I had spent my entire life admiring had left behind a secret capable of poisoning everything.
