Chapter 9 - The Unraveling of a Fraud
Julian stared at me in wild disbelief, a mocking, hysterical chuckle escaping his dry lips.
"You're out of your mind, Evelyn!" he laughed, shaking his head furiously.
"You can't fire me!"
"I hold sixty-two percent of the voting proxy!"
"My name is on every institutional banking line from here to London!"
"You are merely a retired founder's daughter who sits at home collecting dividend checks!"
"Without me, this company's valuation drops thirty percent by the closing bell!"
Arthur Vance stepped forward, pulling a stamped, notarized certificate from his briefcase and holding it inches from Julian's bulging eyes.
"Read the filing, Mr. Vance," Arthur stated with razor-sharp legal clarity.
"The Delaware Secretary of State confirmed receipt and certification of the proxy revocation at nine o'clock yesterday morning."
"Your executive power was legally dissolved forty-eight hours ago."
"Furthermore, Section 9 of your prenuptial agreement explicitly outlines that any extramarital infidelity constitutes a total breach of contract."
"All unvested stock options granted to you during the marriage are null and void."
"The penthouse on Fifth Avenue is held entirely within the Vance Family Legacy Trust, to which you have zero legal claim."
"The joint checking accounts at JPMorgan Chase have been frozen pending forensic financial audit for corporate embezzlement."
"Every single penny you used to pay for that villa in Napa Valley was stolen from company operational funds."
Julian’s jaw dropped slack, his portfolio slipping from beneath his arm and crashing onto the hardwood floor with a dull thud.
Papers scattered across the floor—not investment contracts, but amateur marketing mockups that Victoria Sterling had hastily drawn together.
"No... no, that's impossible," Julian whispered, the arrogance completely draining from his posture, leaving him looking hollow and pathetic.
"Evelyn, you can't do this to me!"
"We built this life together!"
"Okay, fine! Napa was a mistake! It was a momentary lapse of judgment!"
"Every man in this room understands the pressures of being at the top of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise!"
"I was under immense stress! Victoria was just... she was just someone to talk to!"
He stepped around Marcus, dropping to his knees beside the conference table, reaching out his hands as if to beg for mercy.
"Evelyn, think of our family!" Julian pleaded, his voice breaking into pathetic, whiny sobs.
"Think of our baby!"
"How can you tear our family apart when we are about to bring our son into the world?"
"Where is Daniel?"
"Why isn't he with the nanny at home?"
"Let me go home to the penthouse, let me see our boy, and we can work through this like adults!"
The entire room gasped in horrified disbelief at his words.
Richard Hayes covered his face in his hands, unable to stomach the display of absolute ignorance.
I stood motionless, looking down at the man who had promised to protect me in front of God and three hundred witnesses five years ago.
I walked slowly toward where he knelt on the floor, the click of my heels echoing like the ticking of a grandfather clock in an empty mausoleum.
I stopped two feet from his face, looking down into his desperate, deceitful eyes.
"You want to see your son, Julian?" I whispered, my voice carrying a chill so deep that Julian visibly flinched.
"Yes! Please, Evelyn! Where is Daniel?" he begged.
"Daniel is dead, Julian."
The words hit him like a physical blow to the chest.
Julian froze, his mouth hanging open, his breath catching in his throat.
"What... what did you say?" he murmured, blinking rapidly in utter confusion.
"Our son died on Saturday morning at three-fifteen while you were sleeping in the arms of your mistress," I continued, every word deliberate, clear, and cold as ice.
"He bled to death inside my body while I begged you seven times on the phone to call an ambulance."
"You told me it was drama."
"You told me to stop bothering you during your critical meetings."
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"I buried our baby yesterday morning in the freezing rain while you were buying diamond bracelets in San Francisco with stolen company money."
Julian collapsed backward onto his hands, staring up at me with sheer, unadulterated terror as the reality of his own monstrosity finally shattered his manufactured delusion.
