Chapter 10 - Shadows of 1996
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I looked back and forth between my father and my mother-in-law, my mind racing.
“Thirty years ago?” I asked, my voice laced with confusion. “Dad, what are you talking about? You told me you only knew Eleanor through mutual acquaintances in the banking industry.”
“That was a simplified version of the truth, Audrey,” Dad said, turning to look at me with regret in his eyes. “A version I used because I wanted to protect you from old history.”
Eleanor stood up slowly, wiping her eyes with a lace handkerchief.
“It’s not just old history, Tom,” Eleanor whispered. “If Julian is using the Westbridge name again, he found your old files.”
“Whose old files?” I demanded, stepping between them. “Someone tell me what is going on!”
Dad took a deep breath. “Julian’s father, Richard, ran a commercial development firm back in the nineties. In 1996, he launched a massive multi-million-dollar project called the Westbridge Partnership.”
“And my father’s bank financed it,” I deduced quickly.
“Yes,” Dad said. “But six months into the project, the accounting began to show severe irregularities. Signatures were forged, investor funds vanished into shell accounts, and loan guarantees were falsified. I was the senior risk officer assigned to investigate the fraud.”
I stared at my father, stunned. “Julian’s father committed financial fraud?”
“Before the bank could file formal federal charges,” Eleanor interrupted softly, “Richard suffered a massive stroke. The business went under, our family was stripped of our savings, and Richard passed away a year later.”
“And Julian was fifteen years old when it happened,” Dad added. “He watched his father’s empire collapse.”
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I sat back down on the sofa, processing the shocking revelation. Julian hadn't just made poor financial choices—he was actively duplicating the exact criminal blueprint his father had used three decades earlier.
“There’s one more thing you need to know, Audrey,” Eleanor said, her voice shaking as she looked at my father. “Something your father never told you about your mother.”
