Chapter 9 - WHAT MY HUSBAND WAS REALLY HIDING
“You transferred the house?”
Julian closed his office door.
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if something happened to me, Victor couldn’t touch it.”
I threw the property document onto his desk.
“Do you hear yourself?”
Julian flinched.
Good.
I wanted him uncomfortable.
For three years, I had thought our marriage was simple.
Apparently I had married into a war without being told there was a battlefield.
Julian finally told me everything he had concealed.
Clara had earned a law degree before becoming ill.
Months earlier, she had returned to Boston after learning her cancer had progressed.
She contacted Julian because Victor had begun pressuring her to surrender control of the remaining Hale trust.
If Clara died without naming another trustee, Victor would gain control.
So she named Julian.
That was why the condo existed.
That was why Julian had been meeting her.
That was why Victor had started watching us.
“But why pretend she was your wife?”
Julian lowered his head.
“Because when you woke up claiming you remembered nothing, I panicked.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“I thought if Victor believed you no longer knew you were married to me, you might stop being useful to him.”
I stared at him.
“You erased me to protect me?”
“I convinced myself that was what I was doing.”
“And the old marriage?”
“Annulled eleven years ago.”
He handed me certified court records.
It was true.
Then I noticed the filing attorney.
Victor Hale.
The same man now trying to seize Clara’s trust.
At the bottom of the annulment order was a handwritten note.
KEEP ORIGINAL SEALED.
I looked at Julian.
“Why would Victor help annul your marriage?”
May you like
Julian’s face darkened.
“Because he needed everyone to believe it never existed.”
