Chapter 6: Her Father’s Final Secret

Victor’s words haunted Elena for the next three days.

News of the arrests spread across the country.

Apex Global’s stock collapsed.

Board members resigned.

Federal investigators raided offices in six cities.

Thousands of employees learned their retirement money had been stolen.

Reporters camped outside Apex Tower.

But Elena barely watched the coverage.

She sat in Margaret’s apartment, surrounded by her father’s files.

“He lied,” Margaret said. “Victor wanted to confuse you.”

“Victor lies when it benefits him. He didn’t benefit from telling me that.”

Margaret poured two cups of coffee.

“What are you looking for?”

“Something my father hid.”

Elena replayed Thomas’s video again.

Near the end, he said something strange.

There is one truth I cannot release. Not yet. Too many innocent people would be destroyed.

Elena froze the frame.

Behind her father was a calendar.

One date had been circled.

March 14.

The date of Julian’s eighteenth birthday.

Margaret stared at the screen.

“No.”

“What?”

Margaret sat slowly.

“Elizabeth disappeared for several months before Julian was born.”

Elena’s stomach tightened.

“Are you saying Julian wasn’t Victor’s son?”

“I’m saying your mother once loved a man named Richard Hale. Victor’s best friend and business partner.”

Elena searched the files.

She found a sealed envelope labeled J.A.

Inside was a DNA report.

Probability of paternity: 99.98 percent.

Richard Hale was Julian’s biological father.

A handwritten note from Thomas was attached.

Victor killed Richard after discovering the affair. Elizabeth protected Julian because he was innocent. Victor raised him as his own, but never forgave him for existing.

Elena leaned back, stunned.

“So my father kept this secret to protect Julian.”

Margaret nodded.

“If the truth became public, Victor might have killed him too.”

“He turned Julian into a criminal.”

“He made Julian desperate for approval.”

Elena felt anger rise.

Julian had helped murder her father.

He had held a gun to her head.

His childhood explained him.

It did not excuse him.

That afternoon, Elena visited Julian at the federal detention center.

He entered the interview room wearing gray prison clothes.

His arrogance was gone.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“To understand why my father protected you.”

Julian stared at the table.

“Thomas told me the truth when I was eighteen.”

“You knew?”

“He showed me the DNA report. He offered to help me leave.”

“But you stayed.”

Julian gave a hollow laugh.

“Victor told me Thomas fabricated everything because he wanted the company. I believed the man who raised me.”

“Even after he ordered my father killed?”

Julian looked up.

“I didn’t know they were cutting the brakes. Crane told me they only wanted to scare him.”

“You gave Crane his route.”

“Yes.”

“You stood in the ballroom and pointed a gun at me.”

“Yes.”

Elena waited for an excuse.

None came.

Julian’s voice broke.

“I became exactly what Victor wanted because I thought it was the only way he would see me as his son.”

Elena pushed the DNA report across the table.

“My father died protecting your secret.”

Julian stared at it.

Tears filled his eyes, but he did not wipe them away.

“What do you want from me?”

“The truth. All of it. Every account. Every official. Every company.”

“If I testify, I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison.”

“You may spend it there anyway.”

Julian looked at her for a long time.

Then he nodded.

“There’s a server in Geneva. Victor kept records no one else knew about.”

Elena stood.

“Tell the investigators.”

As she reached the door, Julian spoke again.

“Elena.”

She turned.

“I’m sorry about your father.”

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Elena’s face remained still.

“Spend the rest of your life proving that.”