Chapter 7: The Cayman Account
Julian's attorney was a woman named Grace Ellison — sixty-two, silver-haired, and the kind of lawyer who asked questions in the same tone other people used to make small talk, which was precisely what made her dangerous.
She arrived at nine the next morning with a junior associate and a leather briefcase she set on Julian's dining table without asking.
"Walk me through it," she said.
Julian walked her through it.
Grace listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she opened the briefcase and took out a legal pad.
"The forged medical directive is the most serious exposure," she said.
"Depending on how it was executed, we're potentially looking at fraud, unlawful medical consent, possibly false imprisonment given the transfer under a false name." She looked at Mara, who was seated at the far end of the table.
"Ms.
Voss, I'll need to refer you to a colleague who can advise you separately.
Your interests and Mr.
Sterling's are not identical."
"I understand," Mara said.
"The anonymous text," Grace said, turning to Julian.
"Show me."
He handed her the phone.
She read it twice, handed it back.
"Do you have any knowledge of a Cayman account?"
"No," Julian said.
"Our finances are managed through the family office.
I've never had reason to audit Victoria's personal accounts."
"She has her own accounts?"
"A settlement from her first marriage.
Roughly four million.
I never touched it, never asked about it."
Grace wrote something on the pad.
"Four million from a prior settlement is not inherently suspicious.
But if money was moved in connection with the events of four years ago — payments to the facility, payments for the transfer, payments for silence — that creates a financial trail that will be very difficult to explain."
The guest room door opened down the hall.
Victoria appeared in the dining room doorway in the same clothes she'd worn the night before.
She looked at Grace.
She looked at the legal pad.
"You called her last night," Victoria said to Julian.
"Yes."
Victoria pulled out a chair and sat down at the table without being invited.
"Then I'd like my attorney present before this goes further."
"That's your right," Grace said pleasantly.
"We can pause until he arrives.
Though I should mention — the questions I'm going to ask you today are much easier to answer now, voluntarily, than they will be later when they're asked by someone with a subpoena."
Victoria's eyes moved to the legal pad.
"The Cayman account," Julian said.
"Tell me about it."
Victoria looked at him.
Something shifted in her face — not guilt, not exactly.
More like the expression of someone who has been carrying a specific weight for so long that being asked about it directly is almost a relief.
"It was a precaution," she said.
"Against what?"
"Against exactly this." She folded her hands on the table.
"I knew, at some point, that there was a risk she might recover.
The statistics were small but not zero.
And I knew that if she did, and if she found her way back, I would need—" She stopped.
"Resources," Grace supplied.
"Yes."
"How much?" Julian asked.
Victoria looked at the table.
"Two point three million."
Julian sat back.
"Over four years," Victoria said quickly.
"The facility costs, the name change administration, a private investigator I hired to monitor her recovery, and—" She stopped again.
"And?" Julian said.
"And a payment," Victoria said.
"To a hospital administrator.
Four years ago.
To process the transfer paperwork without flagging it."
Grace's pen moved steadily on the legal pad.
"I want to be clear," Victoria said, her voice tightening.
"I did not want her to suffer.
The facility was good.
She had proper care.
I made sure of that."
"You made sure," Mara said quietly from the end of the table, "that I had proper care under a name that wasn't mine, in a facility my family couldn't find, while my sons grew up not knowing I existed."
Victoria turned to look at her.
"Your family—"
"My mother spent two years looking for me," Mara said.
"She hired people.
She filed reports.
She was told I had d*ed in a hospital fire in another state.
Someone told her that." She paused.
"Was that you as well?"
Victoria's hands tightened on the table.
"Was that you?" Mara asked again.
"Yes," Victoria said.
Barely audible.
The junior associate's pen stopped moving.
He looked at Grace.
Grace did not look up from her legal pad.
Julian stood up from the table.
He walked to the window and stood with his back to the room for a long moment, looking at the city.
"Grace," he said without turning around.
"What are the next steps?"
"I'll contact the district attorney's office today," Grace said.
"Given the voluntary admissions this morning, I'd recommend we document everything before Mrs.
Sterling has the opportunity to consult separately and change her account." She paused.
"Mrs.
Sterling, I want to be direct with you.
What you've described this morning constitutes multiple serious crjmes.
If you cooperate fully and immediately, that cooperation will be noted.
If you don't—" She set her pen down.
"The paper trail you've just described is not difficult to follow."
Victoria looked at Julian's back.
"Julian," she said.
He didn't turn around.
"I did love you," she said.
"That part was real."
He stayed at the window.
"I know," he said finally.
"That's the part that makes it worse."
Grace closed her legal pad.
May you like
"Mrs.
Sterling," she said, "I'd suggest you call your attorney now."
