Chapter 13 - The Secret Trust|
The following morning, Audrey sat in the sunlit breakfast nook of her estate, sipping black coffee. Across the marble table sat Naomi Feld and Ethan Shaw, both surrounded by stacks of financial binders.
The morning sun filtered through the high French doors, illuminating the peaceful silence Julian had disrupted for over a decade.
“The police took Julian and Camilla into custody around midnight,” Naomi reported, sliding a paper across the table. “Julian spent the night in a cell at the precinct. His attorney tried to post bail, but the prosecutor flagged the offshore accounts as a flight risk.”
“What about the money in the J.V. Family Trust?” Audrey asked.
Ethan opened a blue folder.
“We filed an emergency injunction at eight a.m. A federal judge froze the entire two point three million in the Cayman accounts, along with Camilla’s CP Ventures accounts. We’ll recover roughly eighty-five percent of the stolen funds for Aurelia Systems.”
Audrey set her coffee cup down.
“And Camilla?”
“She’s singing like a canary,” Ethan said with a faint smile. “Once she realized Julian had funneled twice as much money into his personal trust as he gave her, her loyalty completely vanished. She handed over her laptop, her phone, and six months of encrypted text messages.”
Naomi leaned forward, her expression turning serious.
“There’s something else, Audrey. Camilla gave the detectives a flash drive Julian had asked her to hide.”
Audrey frowned.
“What was on it?”
“Digital copies of your personal financial records,” Naomi said softly. “Brokerage statements, your mother’s trust distributions, and internal Northstar reports.”
Audrey’s hand tightened around her coffee cup.
“He was spying on my finances?”
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“He was copying your files at night from your home office computer,” Naomi confirmed. “Julian was trying to figure out how much money you actually had so he could target it in a future divorce.”
Audrey closed her eyes for a brief moment, feeling a cold shiver run down her spine. The betrayal ran deeper than she had imagined. He hadn't just cheated; he had been calculating her downfall for years.
