Chapter 2 - The Audit of Lies
The legal documents Julian spread across the glass table were a map to his mother’s ruin.
"She wasn't just managing the estate," he said, his voice devoid of warmth. "She was embezzling from the trust intended for the employees' pension fund."
I looked at the rows of numbers, the signatures that didn't match, and the dates that overlapped.
"If this gets out, the company collapses," I whispered.
"The company won't collapse," Julian corrected. "She will."
He explained that for years, Mrs. Ashford had been playing a dangerous game.
She had leveraged the estate against high-interest, predatory loans to maintain the appearance of infinite wealth.
To keep the facade, she had manipulated the books, using my name as a 'clerical error' on several shell companies.
My blood went cold.
"She used me?"
"She was preparing to frame you for the shortfall," Julian said. "That’s why she threw you out. If the auditors came knocking, you were supposed to be the fall girl."
I felt a wave of nausea hit me.
I hadn't just been a servant; I had been a target.
"She planned this?"
"She has been planning it since the day I told her I was dating someone," he said. "She knew I would eventually choose you, so she built a trap."
I stood up and walked to the window.
The city lights looked like a million tiny eyes watching us.
"We have to go public," I said.
Julian nodded.
"I have a meeting with the SEC tomorrow morning."
"And if she fights back?"
"She has nothing to fight with," he said. "Except for one thing."
He hesitated.
"What?"
"The secret room in the west wing."
I shuddered.
I remembered that wing.
It was where the old family records were kept.
"I’ve never been inside," I said.
"That’s where she keeps the evidence of my father’s real will," Julian said. "He wanted to leave the company to the employees, not to the family."
"She hid it?"
"She incinerated it," he said. "But she kept the original drafts in a safe that requires a biometric scan."
"Whose?"
"Mine," he whispered. "She never realized I had the same fingerprint pattern as my father."
The gravity of it hit me.
We weren't just going to take the house; we were going to uncover a legacy of lies.
Julian reached out and took my hand.
"Are you ready to face her?"
I looked at my reflection in the window.
I saw the woman who had been humiliated on a driveway, the woman who had cried on a bus station bench.
That woman was gone.
"I'm ready," I said.
We packed a bag.
We didn't bring clothes.
We brought the evidence of her destruction.
As we stepped out into the night, the air felt different.
It felt like the calm before a storm that would wash away the corruption of an entire dynasty.
We didn't know then that she was waiting for us.
She had cameras everywhere.
May you like
She had seen us leave.
And she was already setting the final, most dangerous trap of all.
