Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE HOSPITAL FILE
The hospital room smelled of antiseptic and rain.
By midnight, doctors had stabilized me.
The baby was alive.
That was the only sentence I cared about.
“She’s strong,” the obstetrician told me.
I closed my eyes.
My daughter.
I had spent nine months imagining her first cry.
I had never imagined that her father would try to make sure she never heard it.
My attorney, Rebecca Sloan, arrived before sunrise.
She placed a black folder on the table.
“Your father told me what happened.”
“I want everything.”
She studied me carefully.
“Are you sure?”
“I've never been more sure of anything.”
Rebecca opened the folder.
“The forged trust amendment was submitted through a Delaware law firm six months ago.”
“Who submitted it?”
“Someone using Julian's corporate account.”
I frowned.
“Then it was Julian.”
“Not exactly.”
She slid a photograph across the table.
The woman in the photograph was in her early forties, with dark hair and an expression I immediately recognized.
I had seen her before.
At Julian's office.
At our charity gala.
At least twice in our home.
“Who is she?”
“Catherine Vale.”
The name meant nothing.
Rebecca continued.
“She was your husband's chief compliance officer.”
My stomach tightened.
“Was?”
“She resigned three days ago.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Because she contacted my office last night.”
I sat up.
“What did she say?”
“She claims Julian ordered her to alter financial records.”
“For how long?”
“Almost three years.”
Three years.
I thought about every time Julian had told me his company was struggling.
Every time he had asked me to release another investment.
Every time he had kissed me afterward and promised everything would be fine.
“How much money?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Approximately seventy-two million dollars.”
My mouth went dry.
“That much?”
“Your trust covered the largest portion.”
I looked toward the window.
The sun was beginning to rise.
“Where did the money go?”
Rebecca didn't answer immediately.
Then she said, “Some went into shell companies.”
“And the rest?”
“Luxury properties. Offshore accounts. Political donations. And payments to someone named Victor Hale.”
My blood went cold.
“Victor Hale?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Do you know him?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
She pulled out another photograph.
This time, I knew the man instantly.
My husband's father.
Richard Vance.
He had died eight years earlier.
At least, that was what Julian had told me.
I stared at the photograph.
“That's impossible.”
Rebecca's voice softened.
“That's what I thought.”
She turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten address.
A private clinic in Arizona.
The date was three weeks ago.
My father entered the room.
He saw the photograph.
His expression changed.
“Genevieve,” he said quietly.
“What?”
“Your husband told you his father died eight years ago.”
“Yes.”
“He didn't.”
My heart began pounding.
Dad pulled out his phone.
“We found a recent passport record.”
Julian's father was alive.
And he wasn't hiding.
He had been traveling under another name.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Why?”
She opened another file.
Inside was a copy of a corporate merger agreement.
The buyer was an investment group I had never heard of.
The seller was Vance Global.
And the controlling beneficiary was listed as—
Richard Vance.
My father looked at me.
“Your husband wasn't trying to take your money for himself.”
“Then who?”
Dad's voice was grim.
“His father.”
The room went silent.
For ten years, Julian had told me he had built his empire alone.
But now I understood.
He had never been the architect.
He had been the son following orders.
May you like
And somewhere in Arizona, the man everyone believed dead was waiting for the one thing only I could give him.
Control.
