Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Three days later, I left the hospital under heavy security.
My father wanted me to go straight to his private residence.
I refused.
“I need to see Julian.”
Dad looked at me for a long moment.
“Why?”
“Because I want to hear him lie to my face.”
Rebecca smiled faintly.
“That might be useful.”
Julian was being held in a federal detention facility pending a preliminary hearing.
When I entered the interview room, he was already sitting there.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
He looked exhausted.
But when his eyes fell on my stomach, something softened in his expression.
“Is the baby okay?”
I didn't answer.
He lowered his head.
“Genevieve, I never wanted you hurt.”
I laughed.
It was a quiet, bitter sound.
“You gave me a drug.”
“I didn't know what Victoria had put in those capsules.”
“So you admit Victoria was involved.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“She was supposed to scare you.”
My blood ran cold.
“Scare me into what?”
“Signing the trust amendment.”
There it was.
The truth.
He looked at me.
“My father said if I didn't get control of the trust, he'd destroy everything.”
“Your father is dead.”
Julian stared at me.
“No.”
The word came out barely above a whisper.
“He's alive.”
“I know.”
Julian's face changed.
“How?”
“Your own records.”
He leaned forward.
“You don't understand who he is.”
“Then explain.”
Julian rubbed his face.
“My father built Vance Global. When he was investigated for fraud, he disappeared. He created a new identity and used me as the public face of the company.”
“And you agreed?”
“I was twenty-four.”
“You were thirty-five when you married me.”
He looked away.
“I thought I could escape.”
I stared at him.
“Then why did you marry me?”
His silence was the answer.
I felt something inside me break for the final time.
“You needed my trust.”
“Yes.”
“You never loved me.”
Julian's eyes filled with tears.
“I did.”
“Not enough.”
He didn't argue.
Then I placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Richard Vance standing outside a clinic in Arizona.
Julian stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“From the investigators.”
He whispered something I couldn't hear.
“What?”
“My father doesn't want your trust.”
“What does he want?”
Julian looked directly into my eyes.
“Your baby.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He believes your daughter has a legal claim to the trust that even he cannot override.”
My heart pounded.
Julian continued.
“If something happens to you, the inheritance passes to her.”
“So?”
“So your father needs control of her guardianship.”
I understood.
The jet ski.
The forged documents.
The sedatives.
They weren't separate crimes.
They were pieces of the same plan.
Make me medically incapacitated.
Take control of my trust.
Then control my daughter.
I stood.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Julian looked broken.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of your father?”
“Yes.”
I walked toward the door.
Then he said one final thing.
“Genevieve.”
I stopped.
“There's someone else helping him.”
I turned.
“Who?”
Julian swallowed.
“Your mother.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“My mother died six years ago.”
“I know.”
May you like
His eyes were full of fear.
“That's what everyone was supposed to believe.”
