PART 10
Then I remembered something.
My father’s funeral.
Julian had stood beside me.
He had cried.
He had held my hand.
And that same night, he had asked me whether my father had left me anything.
I had told him I didn’t know.
He had kissed my forehead.
“Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”
I closed my eyes.
He hadn’t been comforting me.
He had been fishing.
That afternoon, Daniel discovered something even worse.
Julian had opened a line of credit against a commercial property connected to the trust.
Without my permission.
He had also attempted to transfer money from one investment account to another. The transaction had failed.
But the attempt was recorded.
“Why would he need money?” I asked.
Daniel looked at me.
“Sophie.”
I frowned.
“You think he’s paying her?”
“Maybe.”
“But why would he need millions?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Because I don’t think this is just about a baby.”
He pushed another document toward me.
A bank transfer.
Several large payments.
All going to a company called Larsen Family Holdings LLC.
I recognized the name.
“Who owns this?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Sophie.”
My heart sank.
“How much?”
“Over the last eighteen months?”
He paused.
“Nearly $600,000.”
I stared at the number.
Six hundred thousand dollars.
While Julian had told me we needed to cut back.
While he had told me the fertility treatments were expensive.
While he had asked me to stop ordering takeout.
While he had told me we couldn’t afford to renovate the kitchen.
He had been sending Sophie hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I laughed.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
It was the kind that comes when reality becomes too absurd to process.
“He told me we couldn’t afford a vacation.”
Daniel didn’t smile.
“I know.”
“He told me we needed to save for retirement.”
“I know.”
“He told me my fertility treatments were putting us under financial pressure.”
Daniel looked down.
“Claire…”
I swallowed.
“I paid half of those treatments myself.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You don’t understand.”
I stood.
“I paid half because I believed he was making sacrifices too.”
My voice cracked.
“He wasn’t.”
Daniel said nothing.
I wiped my eyes.
Then I sat back down.
“What does Sophie know?”
“We need to find out.”
