Chương 4
My fingers tightened around my phone.
"Transfers to where?"
"Different companies."
"Which companies?"
"One of them was Sterling Advisory Holdings."
My heart started beating faster.
"Why didn't you report it?"
The silence that followed was uncomfortable.
"Because I was afraid."
It was the answer I expected.
It was also the answer I hated.
"Afraid of what?"
"Losing my job."
Rachel's voice became smaller.
"Julian wasn't the only person involved."
That sentence stayed with me.
"What does that mean?"
"I can't explain everything over the phone."
"Then why call me?"
"Because the wedding is in a few days."
I looked at the calendar.
She was right.
The date had arrived faster than I expected.
"And?"
"And after the wedding, some records may disappear."
My stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
I heard movement on her end.
"That's the truth."
Before I could ask anything else, she said goodbye.
Then she disconnected.
I immediately called Claire.
She answered while I was still speaking.
"Rachel Porter."
"Who?"
"Former Vance Global employee."
I explained everything.
Claire listened without interruption.
When I finished, she exhaled.
"That is important."
"Because she confirms the company?"
"Because she confirms there were internal concerns."
"Can we use her?"
"Not yet."
I closed my eyes.
"Why does everything have to be not yet?"
"Because fear makes people unreliable witnesses."
The answer frustrated me.
But I knew she was right.
A frightened person could tell the truth and still damage their own credibility.
"Can you meet her?"
"I can try."
The next morning, Claire arranged a meeting at a small coffee shop outside downtown.
I almost didn't go.
Not because I didn't want answers.
Because I was tired.
I had spent years chasing explanations from Julian.
Every conversation with him became a maze.
Every apology came with a condition.
Every promise had a hidden exception.
Part of me feared that searching for the truth meant I was still connected to him.
But when I looked at Amelia sleeping in her carrier, I remembered something important.
This was no longer about my marriage.
It was about the kind of world my daughter would grow up in.
Rachel arrived ten minutes late.
She looked younger than I expected.
Maybe thirty-five.
Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, and she kept looking toward the entrance.
Claire noticed too.
"Are you worried someone followed you?"
Rachel looked embarrassed.
"No."
Then she corrected herself.
"Maybe."
Nobody spoke for a moment.
The barista called out an order.
Someone laughed near the window.
Normal life continued around us.
Rachel wrapped both hands around her coffee cup.
"I shouldn't have called."
Claire leaned forward.
"Then why did you?"
Rachel looked at me.
"Because Julian told people you were unstable."
The words hit harder than I expected.
Not because they were true.
Because they were familiar.
"He said you couldn't handle the divorce," Rachel continued.
"He said you were emotional and confused."
I stared at her.
"He told you that?"
"Not directly."
"Then how?"
"People talk."
Of course they did.
Julian had always been careful.
He never attacked me loudly.
He planted doubts.
Small ones.
The kind that grew when nobody noticed.
"He said the trust issue was a misunderstanding," Rachel said.
Claire's expression changed.
"What trust issue?"
Rachel looked down.
"The company records."
The coffee shop suddenly felt too bright.
"What did Julian tell you?"
"That your family had invested in one of his projects."
I frowned.
"That never happened."
"I know."
Rachel swallowed.
"Because I saw an email."
"What email?"
"An internal message from Julian."
My heartbeat increased.
"To who?"
"I don't know."
"About what?"
Rachel hesitated.
Then she reached into her bag.
She pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"I printed this before I left."
Claire immediately looked at me.
I didn't touch it.
Not yet.
"Why didn't you give this to a lawyer?"
Rachel smiled sadly.
"Because I didn't know whose lawyer I could trust."
The sentence hurt because I understood it.
When powerful people controlled the story, everyone else started questioning where safety existed.
Claire opened the paper carefully.
Her eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
"What?"
She didn't answer.
She read it again.
My hands went cold.
"Claire."
She looked up.
"Genevieve, Julian didn't just use the company."
"What did he do?"
She placed the paper on the table.
"He used your grandmother's name to attract investors."
I stared at the document.
A signature appeared near the bottom.
Not mine.
Not Julian's.
Someone else's.
Someone who had authority over the Sterling Family Trust.
Someone I thought had been protecting my inheritance.
Claire slowly folded the paper.
"We need to find out who signed this."
I looked through the window at people walking past with shopping bags and coffee cups.
The world looked ordinary.
That was the unsettling part.
My life had changed completely, and everyone around me was still buying groceries, answering calls, and waiting for traffic lights.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Julian appeared.
I opened it.
The words were short.
"Looking forward to seeing you at the wedding."
I stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
"I hope you can finally accept that some things were never meant to work."
For the first time in months, I didn't feel hurt.
I felt certain.
Julian still believed the wedding was the end of our story.
He didn't know it was the place where his story was about to begin falling apart.
The wedding was three days away when Claire finally called me with the information we had been waiting for.
I was sitting on the floor of Amelia's nursery, folding tiny clothes that somehow looked too small even for someone who weighed less than a bag of groceries.
"Tell me you found something," I said.
Claire didn't answer immediately.
That was becoming her habit when the truth was worse than the uncertainty.
"We found the signature."
I stopped folding.
"Whose?"
"Thomas Whitaker."
The name meant nothing to me at first.
Then it did.
May you like
I stood slowly.
"My grandmother's attorney?"
