Chapter 4 - The Legal Fiction
The ballroom dissolved into a suffocating vacuum where the only sound was the heavy thud of Julian’s heartbeat in his ears. He looked at Maya, then turned his gaze back to Clara, whose immaculate makeup was beginning to streak under a film of cold sweat.
"Bigamy?" Julian repeated, the word tasting like copper and ash on his tongue. He stepped closer to Clara, his voice dangerously low. "What is she talking about, Clara? Look at me. What is she talking about?"
Clara lifted her chin, the desperate terror momentarily replaced by a cold, hardened defiance. "She’s talking about a ghost, Julian. A woman who abandoned you, faked her own disappearance to escape embezzlement charges, and now crawls out of the woodwork because she saw our feature in Vogue and wants a payday."
"Embezzlement?" Maya laughed, a sharp, echoing sound that made the crystal drops on the chandelier chime. She reached into her crimson handbag, pulling out a thick manila envelope. "Oh, sweet sister Clara. You always were the better storyteller. But accountants keep better records than novelists."
Maya descended the final three steps and walked straight toward Julian, ignoring Clara entirely. She held out the envelope, her fingers steady, contrasting sharply with Julian’s trembling hands.
"Open it, Julian," Maya whispered, her eyes softening with a genuine, haunting sorrow. "It contains the certified wire transfers from your joint corporate account—transfers authorized six months after my supposed death, signed by your lovely, innocent bride using my old power of attorney."
Julian stared at the manila envelope as if it were a live grenade. He didn't take it immediately. His mind reeled back through the past five years of grief, the comfort he had found in Clara’s arms, the joint ventures, the shared empire they had built on the ashes of his first marriage.
"Julian, don't you dare touch that," Clara hissed, stepping forward with venom in her eyes. "If you take that envelope from her, if you listen to a single word from a convicted fraudster, we are done. Right here, right now."
May you like
Julian slowly raised his gaze from the envelope to Clara’s face, seeing a stranger staring back at him. He reached out and grasped the thick paper.
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