Chapter 9 - THE MARRIAGE BEFORE JULIAN
Police reached the private airport lounge eleven minutes after the photograph arrived.
Marlene and Graham were gone.
Two coffee cups remained.
One boarding pass had been abandoned beneath the table.
Destination:
Montreal.
Passenger:
M. ROSSI.
No Graham.
No evidence they boarded.
Richard’s investigators recovered airport footage.
Marlene entered through the main doors.
Graham entered through a private service corridor.
They embraced.
Not romantically.
Familiarly.
Like two people who had known each other for decades.
Julian watched the video in silence.
“I don’t know my own mother.”
Elena almost replied that neither of them knew their parents as well as they thought.
She stopped.
It felt cruel.
Instead, Rebecca focused on the wire.
Marlene’s authorization.
Three million into Harlow Strategic Services.
Twenty-four years earlier.
Catherine reluctantly opened her late father’s archived estate records.
At first, nothing.
Then they found a shareholder agreement.
Harlow Strategic Services had owned fifteen percent of a company called Northbridge Development.
Northbridge later merged into another entity.
That entity eventually became Rossi Meridian.
Elena stared.
“So my grandfather owned part of the same company Julian owns now?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Indirectly.”
Richard looked furious.
“Why was this never disclosed?”
Catherine whispered:
“Dad handled his business privately.”
Richard turned.
“We were married.”
“So?”
Everyone looked at her.
Catherine’s face tightened.
“You don’t get to be offended by hidden financial history tonight.”
Richard went silent.
Fair.
Rebecca kept reading.
The ownership structure showed something stranger.
William Harlow’s fifteen percent had been redeemed thirteen years earlier.
Buyer:
Graham Bell.
Payment:
One dollar.
Julian laughed.
“One dollar?”
“Nominal transfer.”
“Why?”
“No idea.”
Then Catherine found a sealed letter among her father’s estate scans.
Addressed to her.
Never opened.
She stared.
“I never saw this.”
The physical original had apparently gone to an old law firm and been digitized without being separately delivered.
She opened the scan.
Catherine,
There is a part of our family history I chose not to burden you with while you were raising Elena.
Catherine stopped breathing.
Elena looked at her.
“Keep going.”
Years before you met Richard, I entered a partnership with Victor Rossi.
Julian froze.
Victor.
His father.
The letter continued.
The partnership involved three properties and a private lending business.
When Victor discovered Graham was moving money, he attempted to separate the companies.
Marlene intervened.
Julian whispered:
“My mother.”
Catherine read.
Marlene persuaded me to accept three million dollars temporarily because she feared Graham would seize the funds.
Elena stared.
So the transfer to Harlow Strategic Services might not have been theft.
It might have been protection.
The letter continued.
I agreed because Marlene told me Victor’s life was in danger.
Julian’s face changed.
Victor had died years later, officially from a heart attack.
Elena remembered something.
Marlene always said he died suddenly in his office.
The letter continued.
I later learned Marlene had lied about the reason.
Before William Harlow could confront her, Graham disappeared.
The three million remained frozen.
Years later, William returned it through a settlement nobody had recognized.
Richard checked.
A three-million-dollar investment from Harlow Strategic into a Rossi creditor trust thirteen years earlier.
The money had gone back.
Julian covered his face.
“So the nine million?”
Rebecca spoke.
“Still six million unexplained.”
Catherine continued reading.
Then she stopped.
“What?”
Elena asked.
Her mother looked at her.
“There’s something about Marlene.”
“What?”
Catherine’s voice became barely audible.
“She was married before Victor.”
Julian frowned.
“No.”
Catherine turned the screen.
William Harlow had written:
What Marlene never told Victor was that Graham Rossi had not merely been his half brother.
He had once been her husband.
Silence.
Julian stared.
“My mother married my uncle?”
Richard read the dates.
The marriage lasted eight months.
Annulled.
Years before Marlene married Victor.
Julian looked sick.
“Why hide it?”
Nobody knew.
Then Rebecca found the next attachment.
A marriage certificate.
Marlene Rossi.
Graham Rossi.
And one year later, a sealed birth record.
Catherine whispered:
“There was a child.”
Julian stopped breathing.
“What?”
The record was heavily redacted.
No first name.
Sex: Male.
Mother: Marlene Rossi.
Father: sealed by court order.
Elena looked at Julian.
“Your mother had a child before you.”
Julian shook his head.
“No.”
Rebecca checked the date.
Twenty-seven years earlier.
The child would now be twenty-six.
Julian was thirty-four.
A younger half sibling.
Or possibly Graham’s son.
Then Richard’s phone rang.
Nathan.
He answered.
“We found Graham.”
“Where?”
“Not physically.”
“What does that mean?”
“We found the beneficial ownership schedule for Northstar Five.”
The company owning half of Rossi Meridian.
Richard looked at Elena.
“Owner?”
Nathan’s voice lowered.
“Not Graham.”
“Then who?”
“The trust beneficiary is a twenty-six-year-old man.”
Julian gripped the table.
“Name.”
Nathan hesitated.
“Evan Cole.”
Everyone froze.
Nathan Cole was standing on the other end of the phone.
Julian whispered:
“Cole?”
Elena looked at Richard.
Then at Nathan’s voice coming through speaker.
“Nathan…”
Silence.
Nathan finally answered.
“Yes.”
Elena felt cold.
“Who is Evan Cole?”
May you like
Nathan exhaled.
“My son.”
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