Chapter 8: What Petra Said
We met the following morning at a small hotel restaurant near the waterfront — neutral ground, Petra had suggested, and I had agreed.
She was already there when I arrived.
Younger than I had pictured, though I wasn't sure why I had pictured anything at all.
She was composed in the way people are when they have rehearsed being composed.
Her hands were around a coffee cup and she did not stand when I approached.
I sat down across from her.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
"I didn't know he was married," she said.
"Not at first."
"When did you find out?"
"About eight months in." She looked at her cup.
"He told me he was separated.
That the marriage had been over for years.
That you were only together for financial reasons and that you both understood it." She paused.
"He said you had an arrangement."
"There was no arrangement."
"I know that now." She looked up.
"When I found out the truth, I ended it.
That was six months ago."
Six months ago.
Eight months after she'd discovered the truth, she had ended it.
I did not say what I was thinking.
"He didn't take it well," she continued.
"He kept calling.
He told me that if I said anything to anyone, he would tell people I had been involved in the account — that I had known about the business transfers and helped him move money." She set her cup down.
"I hadn't.
I didn't know anything about his business.
I didn't even know the account existed until he added me to it and said it was so he could send me money more easily."
"Did you take money from it?"
A pause.
"He transferred money to me, yes.
He said it was his.
I had no reason to believe otherwise." She reached into her bag and placed a folder on the table between us.
"I've documented everything.
Every transfer I received, what I was told it was for, and when I found out the truth.
I've had my own attorney review it." She pushed the folder toward me.
"I'm not your enemy, Sloan.
I was used the same way you were, just differently."
I looked at the folder.
Then at her.
"He told you my name?" I asked.
"Eventually.
When he was trying to frighten me into staying quiet.
He said—" she stopped.
"He said you were the type of woman who would make things very difficult for both of us if she ever found out.
He said you were controlling.
That you managed all the money and gave him almost nothing."
I thought about seven years of mortgage payments.
Dental bills.
Car deposits.
An emergency fund quietly drained.
"He said I was controlling," I said.
"Yes."
I opened the folder.
The documents were organized, clearly labeled, with dates.
Her attorney had been thorough.
"Julian is currently trying to negotiate a settlement," I said.
"He doesn't know how much we have.
He also doesn't know that we've identified a third account — one he's been moving money into for the past three months."
Petra's expression shifted.
"A third account?"
"Yes.
Do you know anything about it?"
"No." She said it quickly, and I believed her — not because she seemed trustworthy, but because the surprise on her face was the same surprise Eleanor had shown when she heard about the jewelry.
The expression of someone encountering a layer of Julian they hadn't known existed.
He had been running multiple versions of himself simultaneously.
A version for me.
A version for Petra.
A version for his mother.
And somewhere underneath all of them, a version that belonged to no one — the one with the hidden account and the quiet transfers and the plan that had been running longer than any of us had realized.
"I'll share this with my attorney," I said, closing the folder.
"If you're willing to give a formal statement, it will matter."
"I'm willing." She met my eyes for the first time directly.
"I'm sorry.
I know that doesn't fix anything.
But I am."
I stood to leave.
At the edge of the table, I stopped.
"He told you I was controlling," I said.
"Yes."
"I paid for everything he had for seven years." I picked up my bag.
"That's not control.
That's just what I thought love looked like."
I walked out into the morning air.
Darcy was waiting in a car across the street.
I got in.
She looked at me.
"Well?" she said.
"She'll testify," I said.
"And Julian has a third account we haven't found yet."
May you like
Darcy started the car.
"Then we find it," she said.
