Chapter 5 - VICTORIA THOUGHT JULIAN WAS GOING TO LEAVE ME FOR HER, UNTIL SHE DISCOVERED HE HAD BEEN USING HER NAME TOO
The investigation lasted months.
Real investigations do.
Nobody gets exposed at a gala and convicted before dessert.
Sterling froze new capital to Mercer Systems but did not shut off essential support already contractually committed.
Employees had mortgages too.
I would not punish three thousand people because Julian could not distinguish love from consent.
An interim governance committee took control of sensitive financial decisions.
Julian remained CEO for twelve days.
Then the board suspended him.
Not because he cheated on me.
Because forensic review showed he had approved multiple related-party contracts without proper disclosure and relied on unauthorized collateral representations.
Victoria was suspended the same day.
Her brother Aaron resigned from Northgate before he could be terminated.
Too late.
Records remained.
Evelyn retained counsel.
Chloe gave a statement through hers.
And I filed for divorce.
Quietly.
No public statement.
No media revenge.
Still, reporters found out.
They always do.
Headlines focused on the affair first.
TECH CEO’S MARRIAGE COLLAPSES AFTER STERLING GALA.
Annoying.
The financial investigation was the real story.
But affairs photograph better.
Then Victoria requested a meeting with me.
My first answer was no.
Her attorney requested again.
This time with Sterling counsel present.
I agreed.
Not because I wanted closure.
Because Victoria had information.
We met in a conference room at Sterling Tower.
She looked tired.
No gala silk.
No perfect lipstick.
She sat.
“I’m sorry.”
I almost laughed.
“Choose the category.”
Her face tightened.
“The affair.”
“The financial work.”
“The house.”
“All of it.”
I waited.
She continued.
“I knew Julian was married.”
“Good.”
“Meaning?”
“Good that you’re not pretending otherwise.”
She nodded.
“I believed you were emotionally separated.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“Did you believe it?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“No.”
Honest.
“When did you know?”
“Seven months ago.”
“Yet you walked into my home with a suitcase.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because he told me you had finally agreed the marriage was over.”
I stared.
“You thought I agreed?”
“He said you had decided to live separately within the house until legal papers were filed.”
I almost laughed.
“And my guest room assignment?”
Victoria looked ashamed.
“I thought it was cruel.”
“But you came anyway.”
“Yes.”
Good.
Do not let dishonesty erase choice.
Then she slid a folder toward me.
“My brother used me too.”
Inside were documents tied to VS Communications Group.
Her company.
Sterling’s forensic review had found millions moving through it.
Victoria said she knew about approximately $600,000 in legitimate PR work.
She did not know about another $1.9 million booked under her company’s vendor number.
“Someone used your vendor ID.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I think Julian’s CFO.”
I frowned.
Mercer’s CFO, Thomas Grant.
One of Julian’s oldest friends.
Had barely appeared in our current investigation.
Why?
Because everyone focused on Julian, Victoria, Northgate, and Evelyn.
Classic distraction.
Victoria continued.
“I found internal approval emails.”
Thomas instructed accounting to code several Arden Strategic Holdings invoices through existing vendor references.
One of those references was Victoria’s company.
Another was Northgate.
That meant the unexplained transfers might be a separate scheme.
Not Julian enriching Victoria.
Someone piggybacking on already messy related-party structures.
“What is Arden?”
I asked.
Victoria shook her head.
“I didn’t know until last week.”
Then she gave me the ownership filing.
Arden Strategic Holdings.
Registered in Delaware.
Beneficial owner through another LLC:
Thomas Grant.
My pulse changed.
“Julian knew?”
“I don’t think so.”
Important.
“Why tell me?”
Victoria looked at me.
“Because Thomas is telling prosecutors Julian approved everything.”
“Did he?”
“Some.”
“Not all.”
“And because…”
She stopped.
“What?”
“He has documents with my signature too.”
I felt cold.
“Forged?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
A pattern beyond Evelyn.
Chaos breeds fraud.
Once a company tolerates informal approvals, hidden related parties, and “fix it later” documentation, everyone learns where the doors are.
Thomas had apparently created his own side channel.
Over two years, Arden received $4.2 million.
Some authorized using Julian’s credentials.
Some via delegated finance permissions.
The money did not go to Victoria.
It went to real-estate purchases tied to Thomas.
Julian’s sloppy governance had not only enabled his own bad conduct.
It created space for theft around him.
Then Victoria said:
“There’s something else.”
Always.
She placed her phone on the table.
Messages from Julian.
Not romantic ones.
Recent.
After suspension.
JULIAN: Tell Clara Thomas is lying. She still has influence over the board.
VICTORIA: You tell her.
JULIAN: She won’t speak to me.
VICTORIA: That is not my problem.
Then:
JULIAN: If you help me stabilize this, we can still have a future.
Victoria looked at me.
“He sent that three days ago.”
My stomach twisted.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because he was still using romance as management.
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
Then:
“He also sent another message.”
She opened it.
JULIAN: Once Clara cools down, she’ll realize destroying Mercer hurts Sterling too. She’s rational. She’ll come around.**
I stared.
Come around.
Even now.
He imagined my boundary as a temporary emotional state.
I looked at Victoria.
“And what did you say?”
She showed me.
She is not angry because she is irrational. She is angry because you keep assuming everyone eventually agrees with you.
I almost smiled.
“Good line.”
“Therapy.”
Fair.
Then I asked the question I had avoided.
“Did you love him?”
Victoria’s face changed.
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
She took a long breath.
“I love who I thought he was when he was with me.”
“That sounds familiar.”
We sat in silence.
Two women.
Not friends.
Not equals in harm.
She had knowingly participated in my humiliation.
But she had also been manipulated.
Both true.
Then she said:
“He told me your silence meant you didn’t care.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“He said you never fought for him.”
“That your marriage was cold.”
“That you were always calm.”
“That he wanted someone passionate.”
I almost laughed.
“Did he tell you what happened when I disagreed?”
“No.”
“He called me dramatic.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Of course.
With me:
Too emotional if I protested.
Too cold if I didn’t.
There is no winning inside a story someone writes to excuse themselves.
Then Sterling general counsel entered.
“Clara.”
“What?”
“Thomas Grant was detained at JFK.”
Victoria froze.
“Leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Zurich.”
He had two phones.
One encrypted drive.
And $170,000 in cashier’s checks.
The Arden money trail was about to become much easier.
Then Marcus looked at me.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“Thomas’s drive contains a folder named HAYES.”
My body went cold.
Inside were scanned copies of my personal signature forms.
Private trust documents.
And internal security maps of Willow Crest.
Thomas had never been inside my home.
So someone gave them to him.
Someone close enough to my marriage to access both Mercer Systems and my house.
May you like
When investigators recovered the transfer logs, the source account belonged to Julian’s sister.
Chloe.
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