Chapter 9 - JULIAN’S OTHER CHILD
Her name was Rachel Dane.
Former event designer.
Left Morgan Events four years earlier.
I remembered her.
Quiet.
Talented.
Sudden resignation.
Julian told me she moved to Seattle.
She lived in Milwaukee.
With a three-year-old boy.
Owen.
Julian’s son.
I sat at the kitchen table until sunrise.
No crying.
That came later.
Julian slept in the guest room.
As if he had any right to sleep.
At seven, I called Rachel.
She answered cautiously.
“I wondered when you’d find out.”
Not cruel.
Tired.
That was worse.
“How long?”
She understood.
“Six months.”
The affair lasted six months.
Then she got pregnant.
Julian begged her not to tell me.
Paid child support secretly.
Through Bellmere.
Company money.
My stomach turned.
“Did you know?”
“About the company money?”
“No.”
“I thought it was his.”
“How much?”
“Four thousand a month.”
Not enough to explain millions.
But part.
Rachel continued.
“He told me you were cruel.”
I laughed.
“Of course.”
“He said your marriage was business.”
“Of course.”
“He said you knew about other women.”
“Of course.”
Silence.
Then she whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
I believed her more than anyone else.
Maybe because she did not ask forgiveness.
She offered to testify.
Then changed her mind an hour later.
Julian called her.
Threatened custody.
I heard because she recorded it.
“If you help Claire, I’ll make sure you never see Owen again.”
My hands shook.
There it was.
Not just cheating.
Control.
Rachel agreed to cooperate after that.
She turned over messages.
Julian discussed “restructuring” Morgan Events.
He planned to force a liquidity crisis.
Then offer emergency capital through a private investor.
The investor would receive forty-nine percent.
Julian expected me to dilute my shares to save payroll.
Who was the investor?
A fund called Hawthorne Ridge.
Beneficial owner.
My mother.
I stared at the report.
Mom had not just known about Chloe.
May you like
She had financed Julian’s backup plan.
