Chapter 5: The Morning the Sterlings Started Talking
Diana arrived at seven forty-five with two coffees and a look on her face that I had learned, over two years of working with her, meant the situation had developed significantly overnight.
She set one coffee on the tray table.
Pulled the chair close.
Sat down.
"How is she?"
"Four pounds eleven.
Breathing on her own.
They're calling it a strong start."
Diana exhaled.
Something in her shoulders released.
"Good." She wrapped both hands around her own cup.
"Audrey, I need to brief you."
"Go."
"Julian gave a statement at two in the morning.
His attorney was present.
He did not invoke.
He talked."
I set my coffee down.
"What did he say?"
"He confirmed the shell companies.
Confirmed the transfers.
Confirmed his signature on the authorization files." Diana paused.
"And then he told investigators that the original structure was designed by Thomas Whitfield."
The room was very quiet.
"He's blaming Whitfield."
"He's saying Whitfield approached him when he was twenty-three.
Presented it as estate tax management.
Julian says he didn't understand the full scope until several years in, at which point he felt he couldn't extract himself."
"And you believe that?"
Diana looked at me steadily.
"What I believe is that Julian Sterling signed every document willingly for eleven years and is now attempting to reduce his exposure by pointing at an older man with deeper pockets and a cleaner reputation."
"Is Whitfield reachable?"
"We executed the second warrant at six this morning." Diana lifted her coffee.
"He was at his home in Connecticut.
He came to the door in a bathrobe.
His attorney arrived within twenty minutes, which tells you something about how prepared he was for this moment."
"He knew it was coming."
"He knew something was coming.
He didn't know how much we had."
I thought about Whitfield at our wedding.
The toast.
The hug.
The words about integrity.
"What does he say?"
"Nothing yet.
His attorney is doing all the talking." Diana set her cup down.
"But here's what matters for you right now.
Julian's attorney called our office at six-thirty this morning."
"I know.
He called my personal phone four times last night."
"He wants a meeting.
Julian wants to speak with you directly before his formal arraignment."
My hand rested on the blanket.
"Why?"
"My read?
He thinks if he can talk to you personally, appeal to you as his wife and the mother of his child, he can slow the process.
Buy time.
Maybe convince you to advocate for leniency."
"He locked me in a bathroom while I was in labor."
"I know."
"His daughter was born four hours later in a hospital room without him."
"I know, Audrey."
I looked at the window.
The morning light was coming in flat and gray.
"Tell his attorney I'll meet with Julian," I said.
Diana's expression shifted slightly.
"Are you sure?"
"I want to hear what he says to my face." I picked up my coffee.
"And I want him to see mine when he says it."
Diana studied me for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"I'll arrange it for this afternoon.
You'll have an observer present."
"Fine."
She stood, then stopped.
"Eleanor also asked to speak with you."
I looked up.
"She called the hospital?"
"She called our office and asked us to pass the request along.
Her attorney is advising against it, apparently.
She's asking anyway."
The image of Eleanor's face in the ballroom came back to me.
White.
Afraid.
Not the woman who had grabbed my arm and dragged me down a service corridor.
Something smaller.
"Not today," I said.
"Understood."
Diana moved toward the door, then paused again without turning around.
"For what it's worth," she said quietly, "the nurse on duty last night left a note in your file.
She wrote that you were, and I'm quoting directly, the most composed patient she had seen under difficult circumstances in twenty-two years of practice."
She left before I could respond.
May you like
I sat with that for a moment.
Then I asked the floor nurse if I could go see my daughter.
