Chapter 5 - JULIAN HAD BUILT THREE DIFFERENT LIVES
Melanie Cross was not another mistress.
That would have been simpler.
She was Julian’s former executive assistant.
And the dependent child was her younger brother.
Not his son.
Still, the townhouse mattered.
Julian had purchased it for Melanie after she threatened to expose financial misconduct at his Canadian employer.
Chloe stared.
“You bought her a house to stay quiet?”
Julian’s face tightened.
“It was severance.”
Patricia replied:
“Then why isn’t it recorded as severance?”
He ignored her.
The story emerged slowly.
Julian’s “assignment” in Canada began legitimately.
His employer transferred him for eighteen months.
Then the project ended.
He did not come home.
Instead he joined a private consulting venture.
Cayman Harbor.
He told me the assignment had been extended.
He told Eleanor the same.
Then he met Chloe.
Then Marcus.
Then Melanie discovered Julian had been routing consulting fees into the Cayman company while still receiving certain U.S. benefits based on representations that Canada was temporary.
Maybe tax problems.
Maybe employment fraud.
Still under review.
He bought the townhouse using company funds.
Melanie signed a confidentiality agreement.
No evidence of sexual relationship.
But another secret arrangement.
Again.
Money replacing honesty.
Then Chloe asked:
“Did you ever plan to come back to Elena?”
Julian looked at me.
I did not want the answer.
He gave it anyway.
“At first.”
“When did that change?”
“About a year in.”
Three years of separation.
After twelve months, he knew.
He still let me wait two more years.
I thought of birthdays.
Christmas.
Eleanor asking:
“Did Julian call?”
Me lying:
“He’s busy.”
The humiliation arrived late.
Not because he loved Chloe.
Because he allowed me to organize my life around a future he had already abandoned.
I whispered:
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He looked ashamed.
“I thought Mom would collapse.”
That answer hurt because it was partly believable.
Eleanor’s health had declined.
Julian feared the shock.
Then:
“And I was afraid of what divorce would cost.”
There.
The real answer.
Money.
Again.
Our marriage had become expensive to end.
So he delayed.
Then Chloe asked:
“When did you decide to marry me?”
Julian stared.
“We aren’t married.”
My head lifted.
Chloe’s face changed.
She had called herself his partner.
Not wife.
But the baby.
The apartment.
Their life.
Maybe she believed an engagement existed.
“You promised,” she said.
“I said after Elena signed.”
Signed what?
I asked.
Julian closed his eyes.
Too late.
Chloe answered.
“He said you had agreed to an uncontested divorce.”
I laughed.
“I haven’t spoken to him properly in more than a year.”
Chloe’s face turned white.
“He showed me emails.”
No.
I knew immediately.
“What emails?”
She pulled out her phone.
Messages supposedly from me.
I understand Julian’s life is in Canada now. I only want enough money to start over.
Not mine.
Another:
I have no interest in fighting over Eleanor’s house.
Not mine.
Another:
Ten thousand is enough if the paperwork is simple.
I stared at Julian.
“You wrote these?”
He looked away.
Chloe whispered:
“You told me Elena knew.”
He had made us both easier to manage by creating a fake version of me who had already surrendered.
Then Patricia said:
“Eleanor found those emails too.”
Julian’s face changed.
“How?”
“She asked Chloe to forward them.”
Chloe looked stunned.
“I thought Eleanor wanted proof Elena had agreed.”
“She wanted proof Julian was impersonating her.”
The room went silent.
Forged emails.
Financial deception.
Potential legal consequences.
Then Patricia opened the last folder.
“Eleanor reported the impersonation to her attorney before death.”
Not police yet.
But preserved.
Then:
“She also changed one more document.”
Julian looked exhausted.
“What now?”
“Your power of attorney.”
He frowned.
“For Mom?”
“Yes.”
“You were removed.”
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“Who replaced me?”
Again, Patricia looked at me.
“Elena.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Then Patricia corrected him.
“No.”
“Not only Elena.”
Co-agent.
Independent CPA.
Name:
Marcus Hale.
Chloe’s former lover.
May you like
The man who might be her baby’s father.
And the man who had access to Eleanor’s finances during her final year.
