Chapter 10 - The Signature at the Bottom
Julian stared at Rebecca.
“What are you talking about?”
Natalie had produced an eight-year-old financial authorization.
It approved a payment of five hundred thousand dollars to Henry Black.
The transfer occurred three days after Leo’s birth.
The authorization carried Julian Vance’s electronic signature.
Sarah felt the old uncertainty returning.
Julian took the document.
“I never approved this.”
Rebecca studied him.
“Can you prove that?”
Julian said nothing.
His company’s authentication system had changed years earlier.
The old records were archived.
Conrad’s attorneys immediately changed their strategy.
They claimed Julian had known about Sarah’s pregnancy.
They claimed he paid Henry to hide Leo.
They claimed Julian was now blaming Victoria to avoid losing control of Vance Capital.
Sarah looked at him across the conference room.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“You never paid anyone?”
“No.”
Sarah wanted to believe him.
But seven years of abandonment were louder than three months of effort.
Julian saw the doubt.
It hurt him.
“I understand.”
He said.
“No, you don’t.”
“I understand why you cannot trust me.”
Sarah looked away.
Julian removed his phone and placed it on the table.
“Rebecca, investigate me.”
His attorney blinked.
“Julian.”
“Everything.”
“Bank records.”
“Emails.”
“Flights.”
“Company servers.”
“Every call I made that week.”
Rebecca frowned.
“That could expose unrelated corporate information.”
“I don’t care.”
Julian looked at Sarah.
“If I did this, she deserves to know.”
“And if I didn’t, I want the person who used my name.”
The investigation uncovered something forty-eight hours later.
On the morning Julian supposedly authorized the payment, he had been in Singapore.
The authorization originated from New York.
Someone had used an executive access token from Julian’s Manhattan office.
Only three people possessed backup access at the time.
Julian.
His former chief counsel, Henry Black.
And Julian’s executive assistant.
Sarah read the third name twice.
Victoria Sterling.
Back then, Victoria had worked for Vance Capital before joining her father’s hotel empire.
Julian shut his eyes.
“I trusted her.”
Sarah thought about the forged breakup letter.
The false death certificate.
The stolen files.
The bracelet.
“She counted on that.”
Rebecca entered the room carrying another report.
“There’s more.”
She laid down banking records.
Henry Black had received five hundred thousand dollars.
But the money had not remained with him.
Forty-eight hours later, four hundred thousand had been transferred to an offshore company.
Sarah asked the obvious question.
“Who owned it?”
Rebecca looked at Julian.
“Someone who still works for you.”
Julian’s face changed.
“Who?”
May you like
Rebecca answered.
“Your chief financial officer, Miles Carter.”
