Chương 6
“How long did you know?”
Mark looked down.
“About the signatures?”
“Yes.”
“Six months.”
I looked at him.
“Six months?”
“I was trying to gather proof.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
He did not argue.
“Yes.”
The answer made me trust him more.
A person who admitted their weakness was easier to believe than someone pretending they had never made mistakes.
“Why tell me now?”
Mark rubbed his forehead.
“Because Julian called me last night.”
My expression changed.
“What did he say?”
“He wanted me to say nothing.”
“About what?”
“About the accounts.”
Mark looked uncomfortable.
“He said if I stayed quiet, he would make sure I was not blamed.”
I stared at him.
“And if you didn’t?”
“He reminded me that I signed some of those reports.”
The meaning was obvious.
Julian was not asking for loyalty.
He was offering fear.
“He’s trying to protect himself,” I said.
Mark nodded.
“He always does.”
The words sounded personal.
I looked at him.
“You worked with him for ten years.”
“Yes.”
“You still sound angry.”
Mark gave a small, humorless smile.
“I am.”
“Why?”
He looked at the folder.
“Because I helped build something I no longer recognize.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Because I understood it.
Julian had not only taken money.
He had taken the version of our life that I thought existed.
When I returned to the hospital, Lucas was sleeping.
The room was dim except for the small light near his bed.
I sat beside him and watched his tiny chest rise and fall.
The investigator’s report.
Mark’s documents.
Julian’s lies.
All of it existed somewhere outside this room.
For a few minutes, none of it mattered.
Then my phone rang.
Rachel.
I answered.
“We need to talk.”
Her tone immediately changed my mood.
“What happened?”
“Julian filed an emergency motion.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“For what?”
“Temporary custody rights.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
This was Julian’s pattern.
When he could not control the truth, he tried to control the situation around it.
“He is claiming I kept his son from him.”
I looked at Lucas.
“He saw him.”
“Apparently that is not enough.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was absurd.
A man who ignored an entire pregnancy was now presenting himself as a father fighting for access.
“What does the court think?”
“It has not been decided.”
“Can he get custody?”
“Not immediately.”
Rachel paused.
“But Audrey, there is something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“Julian is changing his strategy.”
I waited.
“He is no longer denying the child.”
“No.”
“He is trying to become the injured party.”
I looked toward the hospital window.
Outside, the city lights reflected against the glass.
“He wants people to feel sorry for him.”
“Yes.”
I thought about his expression when he saw Lucas.
For a second, there had been something real there.
Something I almost believed.
Maybe that was the hardest part.
Julian was not a cartoon villain.
He was a person who had made choices.
Some of those choices were cruel.
Some were selfish.
But somewhere beneath all of that was still the man I had once loved.
That was what made it complicated.
“Rachel.”
“Yes?”
“If he really wants to be a father…”
I stopped.
The words felt strange.
“If he really wants to be involved, I cannot stop that just because I hate what he did.”
Rachel was quiet.
“That is a very important distinction.”
“I know.”
“And?”
I looked at Lucas.
“But being a father is not something he gets to claim because it is convenient.”
“No.”
“He has to prove it.”
Rachel exhaled softly.
“Good.”
The next morning, Julian’s attorney sent a request for mediation.
Not a lawsuit.
Not a public fight.
A meeting.
That surprised me.
Julian never chose quiet solutions unless he believed they benefited him.
I almost refused.
Then I remembered Lucas.
I remembered that every decision I made now affected someone who had no voice in it.
So I agreed.
The meeting was scheduled for three days later.
The same day Julian and Victoria had planned to get married.
The wedding was canceled.
The company investigation had become public.
Employees were asking questions.
Investors wanted answers.
And the woman Julian had chosen over me had disappeared from every photograph she once proudly posted.
But the strangest part was not that Julian lost his wedding.
It was that for the first time since I knew him, he seemed less concerned about losing money than losing control of the story.
And I was beginning to understand why.
The mediation room was smaller than I expected.
I had imagined something more official.
A large conference table.
Cold walls.
People in suits speaking carefully while everyone pretended emotions were not involved.
Instead, it looked like an ordinary office.
There were two chairs near a window.
A box of tissues sat between them.
A plant leaned slightly toward the sunlight as if it had spent years trying to escape the corner it had been placed in.
I wondered if that was intentional.
A reminder that everything living eventually tries to move toward something better.
Then I wondered if I was becoming the kind of person who searched for meaning in office plants.
The thought almost made me smile.
Rachel arrived first.
She placed a folder on the table and looked at me.
“You slept?”
“A little.”
“That means no.”
“I slept enough.”
She gave me the same expression she used whenever she knew I was lying but decided not to argue.
“You don’t have to win today.”
I looked at her.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I looked down at my hands.
That was the problem.
For so long, every conversation with Julian had felt like a competition.
Who was right.
Who looked better.
Who controlled the outcome.
I had spent years trying to prove I was worth choosing.
May you like
Now I was sitting in a room where I had to prove something entirely different.
That I could protect my son without turning him into a weapon.
