Chapter 4 - THE MISTRESS WHO KNEW TOO MUCHVictoria moved quickly for a woman wearing four-inch heels.
She disappeared through the service corridor before Julian fully understood what was happening.
“Victoria!”
He went after her.
I caught his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
“She’s leaving.”
“Security is already covering every exit.”
“How do you know?”
“Because unlike you, I came prepared.”
Julian looked at me with a mixture of anger and disbelief.
Then Grace spoke into her earpiece.
“East service hall. Silver gown. Do not touch her unless necessary. Keep her inside the building.”
Nathan appeared seconds later.
“What happened?”
“Victoria ran.”
“That seems healthy for our theory.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I’m sixty-two. At this point, most things are.”
Julian rounded on him.
“You knew about Clara?”
Nathan’s amusement disappeared.
“I held her when she was six hours old.”
Julian stared.
Nathan continued.
“I watched Charles teach her to read balance sheets when other children were learning multiplication. I watched her rebuild Sterling’s logistics division after college. And I watched her spend seven years protecting your company because she believed protecting you meant protecting her marriage.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“I never asked her to.”
“No. You merely accepted every miracle and assumed you caused it.”
“Nathan.”
I gave him a warning look.
He nodded.
“Right. Not helping.”
Grace received another message.
“They have Victoria.”
“Where?”
“Private lounge on the east side.”
I looked toward Julian.
“You can come.”
He laughed bitterly.
“How generous.”
“But you don’t speak unless I ask you something.”
“I’m still CEO of Whitmore.”
“For the moment.”
His eyes flashed.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means Sterling Meridian owns sixty-one percent of Whitmore’s outstanding secured debt.”
Silence.
Julian stared.
“You could call the loans.”
“Yes.”
“And destroy my company.”
“Our company?”
He flinched.
I continued.
“You’ve spent years saying Whitmore belongs to you whenever things are going well. Don’t suddenly make it ours because you’re afraid.”
We entered the private lounge.
Victoria sat on a velvet sofa.
Two security officers stood near the door.
Her confidence had returned.
A glass of water sat untouched before her.
“Am I being detained?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“You’re free to.”
She stood.
I continued.
“But federal investigators are approximately twelve minutes away.”
Victoria stopped.
Julian stepped forward.
“Did you forge my signature?”
She looked at him.
“Julian—”
“Yes or no?”
“It’s complicated.”
He laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You stole thirty-one million dollars.”
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“Where is it?”
“I was moving money.”
“For whom?”
Victoria’s silence answered.
I sat opposite her.
“Halcyon?”
She stared at me.
“Did Halcyon pay you to compromise Sterling?”
“No.”
“Then why send them our acquisition information?”
Her jaw tightened.
“I want an attorney.”
“That’s sensible.”
I stood.
Then Victoria said, “You think you’re so clever.”
I stopped.
She looked at me with open hatred now.
“All those years pretending to be nobody.”
“I never pretended to be nobody.”
“You washed his clothes.”
“So?”
“You cooked.”
“Yes.”
“You cleaned your own house.”
“Usually.”
“You let him think you needed him.”
“There’s nothing humiliating about cooking dinner for someone you love.”
Victoria laughed.
“But he didn’t love you.”
Julian went rigid.
I looked at him.
He couldn’t meet my eyes.
Victoria saw it too.
So she twisted the knife.
“He complained about you constantly.”
“Victoria.”
Julian’s warning came too late.
“He said you were boring. That you’d stopped trying. That he had married beneath himself.”
Each word should have hurt.
Strangely, they didn’t.
Maybe because I had heard versions of them in Julian’s behavior for years.
“He told me he was going to divorce you after the gala.”
That one hurt.
I looked at Julian.
“Is that true?”
His silence lasted too long.
“Julian.”
“I was going to talk to you.”
“Tonight?”
“Tomorrow.”
“After taking her to my company’s gala?”
He looked ashamed.
“I didn’t know it was your company.”
There it was again.
As though that mattered.
I nodded slowly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making this easy.”
His face changed.
“Clara—”
“No. You were right about one thing earlier.”
“What?”
“We do need to talk tomorrow.”
I removed my wedding ring.
Seven years.
A small platinum band.
I placed it on the table.
“But we’ll do it through attorneys.”
Julian stared at the ring.
“Don’t do this here.”
“You decided where this ended when you brought your mistress here.”
Victoria smiled.
It disappeared when I turned toward her.
“And you.”
Her posture stiffened.
“You’re enjoying yourself?”
“No.”
“You should be.”
“Why?”
“Because this is the last room you’re walking out of tonight without understanding what’s waiting outside.”
Her confidence faltered.
There was a knock.
Grace opened the door.
Two federal agents entered with badges displayed.
Victoria’s face drained.
They spoke calmly.
Asked her to step outside.
She demanded her attorney.
They told her she was not under arrest but wanted to ask questions.
Victoria looked toward Julian.
For help.
He turned away.
The agents escorted her out.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Julian sat.
He looked ten years older.
“I loved her.”
I had expected many emotions tonight.
That sentence produced none.
“Did you?”
“I thought I did.”
“Then perhaps you should worry about why.”
He looked at the ring.
“Do you hate me?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
I continued.
“Hate would require more energy than I’m willing to give you.”
He covered his face.
“I destroyed everything.”
“Maybe.”
“Clara…”
He looked up.
“Can we fix this?”
I studied him.
“Which part?”
“Our marriage.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
“No.”
“I do.”
“You love who I became fifteen minutes ago.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“It’s the fairest thing I’ve said all night.”
Before he could answer, Grace entered again.
This time she looked shaken.
“What now?”
“We found where some of the money went.”
“Halcyon?”
“No.”
She handed me the tablet.
The screen showed property records.
My house.
The one Julian and I lived in.
Then another property.
A penthouse in Manhattan.
Then a house in Connecticut.
All three had been pledged as collateral to a private lender.
My heart stopped.
“Who authorized this?”
Grace swallowed.
“Julian did.”
I turned.
He looked confused.
“What?”
“The house.”
I held up the screen.
“You borrowed against my house?”
“I didn’t know it was yours.”
Nathan muttered something I won’t repeat.
Julian stood.
“It was part of a liquidity facility.”
“You pledged our home?”
“We needed temporary capital.”
“Without telling me?”
“I paid for that house!”
“No.”
My voice cracked through the room.
Julian stopped.
“My father bought it eleven years before I met you.”
He went pale.
“You told me—”
“I told you it belonged to my family.”
He stared at the tablet.
“The lender said title cleared.”
Grace shook her head.
“Because the documents were forged.”
We all became silent.
Then I understood.
“Victoria.”
Grace nodded.
“She created a fraudulent authorization showing Clara transferred ownership to a Whitmore affiliate.”
Julian looked horrified.
“She forged that too.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“How much did they borrow?”
Grace hesitated.
“Eighty million.”
Julian nearly stopped breathing.
“Eighty?”
“And it gets worse.”
Of course it did.
“The loan matures Monday.”
Three days.
“What happens Monday?”
Grace looked at me.
“If Whitmore doesn’t repay eighty million dollars, the lender claims every pledged asset.”
“My house.”
“Yes.”
“The penthouse?”
“Yes.”
“And Connecticut?”
“Yes.”
Julian leaned against the table.
“Who is the lender?”
Grace turned the tablet.
I read the name.
HALCYON CAPITAL PARTNERS.
This was no longer simply theft.
May you like
Someone had designed a trap.
And on Monday morning, the company trying to destroy Sterling Meridian intended to take my home with it.
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