Chapter 16 - Three Days Before He Died
The medical examiner's report showed a heart attack.
I refused to turn grief into fantasy.
Evidence first.
Naomi agreed.
His cardiologist confirmed he had advanced coronary disease.
He could have died any day.
But Charles had met him three days before.
Why?
Sienna found the answer in an old voicemail backup.
My father's voice.
Charles, if you come near Clara, I release everything. She is not part of our arrangement.
So my father knew Charles had been watching me.
He was trying to stop it.
Julian sat in another room while investigators played the recording.
When it ended, he looked sick.
"My father sent me to that gala anyway."
I said nothing.
There was nothing useful to say.
Charles did not kill my father.
At least, there was no evidence he did.
The heart attack remained a heart attack.
But Charles ignored a dead man's warning and sent his son into my life.
That was enough.
The criminal case against Charles expanded.
Forgery.
Fraud.
Unauthorized access.
Financial crimes.
Witness intimidation.
Julian faced charges too.
He cooperated early.
His lawyers negotiated.
I did not ask what sentence he might receive.
That was between him and the court.
One evening, he asked to meet me one last time.
Public park.
Daylight.
Naomi hated it.
I went anyway.
Julian looked thinner.
"I want to say something without asking you to forgive me."
"Good."
He almost smiled.
"I loved you."
I waited.
"And I also used you."
There it was.
The sentence nobody likes because it allows two terrible truths to coexist.
He continued.
"I kept waiting for love to erase how we started."
"It doesn't."
"I know."
He handed me his wedding ring.
"I don't want this."
"I know."
I didn't take it.
He closed his hand.
Then he said, "Sienna found one more email."
My patience vanished.
"What now?"
"It's from your father to mine."
He handed me a copy.
The subject line was:
May you like
IF CLARA EVER MARRIES JULIAN.
My father had considered this possibility years before I met him.
