Chapter 14 - The Price of Betrayal
The investigations expanded.
Accounts were frozen.
Properties connected to the diverted funds were identified.
Several transactions were reversed.
Insurance investigators examined the suspicious policy increase.
No evidence established that Julian had caused my medical emergency.
That mattered.
I refused to turn suspicion into fact simply because I hated him.
The truth was already bad enough.
My spinal hematoma had been a medical complication.
Julian hadn't created it.
He had exploited it.
There was a difference.
And I wanted every part of my case built on facts.
Months passed.
Hazel grew.
So did I.
At four months, I stopped using the cane inside my house.
At five months, I walked into Vance Development without assistance.
Employees filled the lobby.
Nobody had organized it officially.
At least that's what they claimed.
But when the elevator opened and I stepped out, applause began.
I stopped.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
I saw people who had worked with my father.
People I had hired.
People whose jobs Julian had treated like pieces on a board.
I raised one hand.
"Okay," I said, laughing through tears. "Everybody back to work before this becomes embarrassing."
They laughed.
And just like that, I was home.
May you like
Not the building.
Myself.
