Chapter 18 - The Email to Julian.
Claire stared at Julian's address until the letters stopped looking real.
Every fragile piece of sympathy created by his confession disappeared.
"He knew."
Hale lifted a hand.
"We do not know that yet."
Claire turned on him.
"He received an email telling Victor to stop Dad from reaching the board meeting."
"What exactly do you need to know?"
The detective cautioned her not to contact Julian.
She did not have to.
Julian arrived at the mansion forty minutes later with his attorney.
He had heard Victor was detained.
He walked into the library and stopped when he saw the printed email on the table.
Claire watched his face carefully.
Confusion came first.
Then recognition.
Then horror.
"I never saw that."
Claire laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
Julian stepped closer.
"Claire, listen to me."
"I was copied on hundreds of emails from her office."
"At eighteen, my account was managed by her assistant."
"I did not read that message."
Claire pointed at the page.
"You expect me to believe that after everything else?"
Julian looked toward Hale.
"Check the server logs."
"Check whether my account opened it."
The detective had already requested exactly that.
The answer arrived before sunset.
The archived system showed Eleanor's assistant logging into Julian's account eight minutes after the email was sent.
There was no record of Julian opening it himself.
It did not make him innocent.
It changed what he was guilty of.
Julian sat heavily in Thomas's old chair.
"She used me before the crash."
"Then she used my silence after it."
Claire remained standing.
"And last night you used my daughter."
Julian flinched.
"I know."
"No, you know the sentence."
"You do not know what it felt like to hear her crying because you put your hands on her."
Julian looked at the floor.
"I cannot undo it."
"Correct."
Serena stood by the window.
Her wedding ring rested on the table beside her.
Julian finally noticed it.
He stared at the ring for several seconds.
"So that's over."
Serena's voice was calm.
"It ended when I learned you were willing to marry me while hiding a dead man's recording and a seventeen-year lie."
Julian did not argue.
Police formally took Eleanor for questioning that evening.
Victor remained in custody while prosecutors reviewed obstruction and evidence destruction allegations.
Julian was also informed that Evelyn's assault complaint would proceed independently of the older case.
Claire watched him absorb that.
He nodded once.
"It should."
For the first time, she believed one sentence he said without reservation.
Then Paul Grayson called from Vale Tower.
The board had scheduled an emergency public session for the next morning.
Independent counsel would present the trust fraud evidence.
Claire would be recognized as a beneficiary and shareholder if the documents passed verification.
Eleanor's attorneys were already preparing a counterattack.
"What counterattack?" Claire asked.
Grayson hesitated.
"She is claiming Thomas fabricated the cassette because he was planning to abandon the family."
Claire almost laughed.
"Nobody will believe that."
Grayson's silence made her uneasy.
"There is more."
He sent Claire a scanned document Eleanor's attorneys intended to release.
It was a letter apparently written by Thomas two weeks before his death.
The final paragraph said he planned to leave Claire nothing.
The signature looked perfect.
Hale read it and went pale.
"I have seen this paper before."
Claire looked at him.
"Where?"
May you like
"In your mother's fireplace."
"Seventeen years ago."
