Chapter 4
The interior of the town car was luxuriously quiet, smelling faintly of aged leather and cedarwood. Valeria sat stiffly on the far edge of the plush leather seat, as far away from Julian as the cabin allowed. The older man sat across from her in the jump seat, his hands resting calmly over the silver handle of his cane, while his wife sat quietly in the front passenger seat.
"Why bring me along?" Valeria finally broke the heavy silence, her voice trembling slightly as she glanced out the tinted window at the blurred city lights. "If your dispute is with Julian, and my divorce papers are fraudulent, why not just let the courts handle it?"
The older man turned his gaze toward her, his expression softening just a fraction, revealing the deep lines carved by years of stress and disappointment. "Because, Valeria, Julian used your name to execute the offshore transfers. Legally, the prosecution will look at both of you as co-conspirators unless we untangle this web before the district attorney's office initiates their review on Monday morning."
Julian slammed his hand against the car door panel, the sharp metallic sound echoing in the confined space. "You're setting us up! Both of you! You never forgave me for leaving the family business five years ago, and now you're using Valeria as a pawn to destroy whatever life I tried to build away from your control."
"Control?" The older man’s voice rose, sharp and authoritative, cutting Julian off instantly. "You embezzled four million dollars from the family trust to support a lifestyle you couldn't maintain on your own merits, and when Valeria caught you in minor lies, you rushed through a divorce to hide the asset transfer behind her back! Do you honestly think I wouldn't protect what took generations to build?"
Valeria felt the air leave her lungs. She looked over at Julian, seeing not the charming, successful man she had married, but a desperate stranger cornered by his own endless web of deceit. "You used me," she whispered, the words tasting like ash in her mouth. "The entire divorce settlement... the generous payout you insisted we agree to so quickly... it was just a hiding spot for stolen money."
Julian turned to her, his blue eyes wide with frantic pleading. "Val, I swear to you, I was going to fix it. Once the investments matured, I would have cleared your name completely."
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Before Valeria could respond, the town car pulled to a sudden, jarring halt in front of a towering glass-and-steel skyscraper downtown. The driver’s partition slid open with a soft click.
"We have arrived," the driver announced evenly. "The federal investigators are waiting for us in the fifteenth-floor conference room."
