Chapter 5 - JULIAN’S UNCLE MADE HIS MOVE
Victor Morty learned about the investigation.
Nobody ever discovered exactly how.
Once he knew, he stopped pretending.
He called Julian.
“You’re handing family records to federal investigators because of a dead woman’s paranoia?”
Julian put the call on speaker with counsel present.
“I’m investigating financial misconduct.”
“You’re humiliating your grandfather.”
“My grandfather is dead.”
“He built everything.”
“He built enough problems too.”
Victor’s voice became cold.
“Careful.”
Sarah was not in the room.
She heard the recording later.
Julian’s answer became one of the reasons she began trusting him.
“No.”
“You be careful.”
“Because this is the last conversation we have without lawyers.”
Then he hung up.
No threat.
No gunmen.
No revenge killing.
Victor had expected old Julian.
The man raised inside a family where problems disappeared.
Instead, Julian froze Victor’s authorized access to family-controlled legitimate companies through board procedures.
Independent directors convened.
Banks were notified where required.
Internal credentials suspended.
The empire did not obey one king anymore.
Isabella had helped make sure of that before her death.
Three weeks later, investigators established that Victor had diverted millions over several years.
Some funds supported illegal enterprises.
Some simply enriched him.
But the evidence connecting him to Isabella’s fatal crash remained uncertain.
Her vehicle had suffered a brake-system failure after improper servicing.
The mechanic who worked on it had connections to a Victor-controlled vendor.
Suspicious.
Not enough.
Julian wanted certainty.
He did not get it.
Sarah found him alone in Matteo’s nursery one night.
“You think he killed her.”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
“Then don’t turn maybe into certainty because certainty hurts less.”
Julian looked at her.
“That sounds like something a lawyer says.”
“No.”
“It sounds like something a woman in family court learns.”
For months, Gary had called her unstable.
Lazy.
Unreliable.
If Sarah turned every suspicion about him into fact, she became what she hated.
Evidence mattered.
Even when rage wanted more.
Julian nodded.
“You’re right.”
That was the night Sarah stopped being afraid of him.
Not because he became harmless.
May you like
Because he proved he could stop himself.
---
