Chapter 24 - The Midnight Encounter
The storm raged against the windows of my childhood bedroom. I sat on the edge of the twin bed I had slept in until college, staring at Clara Vance’s silver fountain pen on the nightstand.
For three years, I had believed Julian Sterling loved me in his clumsy, self-absorbed way. I had tolerated his mother’s condescension at country club brunches, his father’s cold, scrutinizing stares during holiday dinners, and Julian’s casual cruelty—culminating in that grotesque family dinner where he had meticulously removed the bones from a Dover sole and placed it on Mia Lin’s plate while I sat across the table, invisible, disposable.
He hadn't been choosing a new mistress that night. He had been panicking. He had felt the walls closing in, trying to curry favor with Mia, who he believed held the keys to his family's survival, all while keeping me hooked on the line just long enough to reach the altar.
At 2:15 AM, the harsh glare of headlights swept across my bedroom ceiling.
A car had pulled into the driveway, tires crunching over wet gravel, engine idling low and uneven.
I stood up, walked to the window, and parted the curtains.
A sleek black Mercedes sedan was parked behind my father's battered Subaru. The driver's door swung open, and a figure stumbled out into the driving rain without an umbrella.
Julian.
His tailored charcoal suit was soaked through, his silk tie crooked, his dark hair plastered to his forehead. He didn't knock on the front door; he walked around the side of the house toward the garage, looking up at my window with frantic, bloodshot eyes.
I went downstairs silently, motioning for my parents, who were still awake in the kitchen, to stay inside. I slipped through the mudroom and opened the back door under the covered breezeway.
"Julian," I said coldly.
He whipped around, nearly slipping on the wet flagstones. When he saw me, a pathetic, desperate sigh tore from his throat. He lunged forward, but stopped two feet away when he saw the iron look in my eyes.
"Emma... thank God," he stammered, his breath smelling heavily of scotch. "I’ve been driving around for two hours. My father’s office was raided an hour ago. The Feds showed up at the penthouse with a grand jury warrant. They froze my accounts, Em. Every single credit card declined."
"You shouldn't be here, Julian," I said, my voice ice. "There’s a restraining order being drafted by the prosecutor's office as we speak."
"Listen to me!" he begged, reaching out to grab my arm. I stepped back, and his hand fell empty into the damp air. "You don't understand what’s happening! My father... he lied to me! He told me that if I married you before your birthday, the firm’s offshore liabilities would disappear. He told me it was just an old tax shelter your father signed off on!"
"You knew," I said flatly. "You knew my parents' home was tied to it."
"I thought it was a technicality!" Julian pleaded, tears mixing with the rain on his cheeks. "I didn't know about Clara Vance! I didn't know you were Clara’s daughter until Mia confronted my father three hours ago! Mia had the full dossier!"
I narrowed my eyes. "What does Mia Lin have to do with this, Julian? Why were you fawning over her at dinner? Why did you debase me in front of your entire family to flatter her?"
Julian let out a bitter, choked laugh, pressing his hands against his face.
"Because Mia isn't a junior partner, Emma! Mia Lin is the court-appointed trustee for the Vance Estate. The Attorney General didn't find those Vanguard Crest files on their own—Mia brought them in three months ago! She played me! She let me think she could be bought, she let me flatter her, she let me debase myself and you... just to keep me from realizing that the trap was already sprung!"
I stood frozen under the breezeway, the rain roaring on the tin roof above.
"Mia Lin is Clara Vance’s trustee?" I asked.
May you like
Julian looked up, his face pale and hollowed out by fear. "Yes. And Emma... she didn't come to save you. Mia is liquidating Vanguard Crest at dawn. If she does, everything Clara left behind—including the deed to this house—goes into state receivership. My father is going to prison, but you... you're going to lose everything your mother died to give you."
***
