His face drained of color.
“You checked the trust account?”
“How much did you take?”
Julian clasped his hands together.
“Forty thousand dollars.”
“I already found forty thousand. What else did you take?”
Silence filled the room.
Eventually, he confessed.
Months earlier, Julian had poured money into a risky private import venture with a business partner.
The investment collapsed.
He lost his capital and, terrified Elena would discover what he had done, began taking money from Maya’s trust because he believed he could replace it before anyone noticed.
Then he met Chloe and created an entirely different fantasy for her, promising a wealthy future he could no longer afford.
“I thought I could fix everything before anyone got hurt,” he said.
“By stealing from your own daughter’s future?”
“I never meant to hurt Maya!”
“Don’t use our daughter’s name to excuse what you did.”
Julian lowered his face into his hands.
For years, Elena had imagined that seeing him truly broken would make her instinctively comfort him.
Instead, she felt something else.
Detachment.
“I’m taking an afternoon flight back to Boston,” she said.
“Are you filing for divorce?”
“Yes. And my legal team will audit every account we’ve had for the last three years.”
Panic flashed across his face.
