Chapter 6: What Julian Said When He Finally Faced Me
They brought Julian into the hospital conference room at two in the afternoon.
He was wearing the same shirt from the night before.
The tie was gone.
His hair was not combed.
He looked like a man who had spent the night in an interview room, which was exactly what he was.
His attorney, a compact man named Garrett Foss, sat beside him.
An investigator from Diana's team sat in the corner with a notepad.
I sat across the table.
Julian looked at me for a long moment before he spoke.
"How is she?"
"She's doing well."
"Can I—" He stopped.
"Is she—"
"She's in the NICU.
She's stable."
He nodded.
His jaw worked.
"Audrey, I need you to understand what happened."
"I'm listening."
"Thomas came to me when I was twenty-three years old.
My father had just died.
I was trying to hold the estate together and I didn't know what I was doing.
He said the structure he was proposing was standard practice for estates of our size.
He said every family like ours used it."
"And you believed him."
"I was twenty-three."
"You were still signing documents at thirty-four."
His hands flattened on the table.
"By the time I understood what it actually was, the money had already moved.
There were years of records.
I was already in it."
"So you kept going."
"I didn't know how to stop."
"You could have come to me."
Something crossed his face.
Not guilt exactly.
Something more complicated.
"You worked for the attorney general's office."
"Yes."
"You were auditing fraud cases."
"Yes."
"How was I supposed to come to you?"
I looked at him across the table.
"You could have come to me as your wife," I said.
"Before you came to me as a suspect."
He had no answer for that.
Garrett Foss leaned forward.
"Mrs.
Sterling, my client is prepared to cooperate fully with the investigation in exchange for—"
"I'm not a prosecutor," I said.
"I'm a forensic auditor.
I don't make deals."
"We understand that, but your relationship with the lead investigator—"
"Is professional.
Not personal." I looked back at Julian.
"If you have something to say to me, say it.
Not through him."
Foss sat back.
Julian was quiet for a moment.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"About last night.
About the bathroom.
About all of it."
"Which part specifically?"
"What?"
"Which part are you sorry about?
The part where you looked at the dance floor instead of calling an ambulance?
The part where you followed your mother down the corridor and didn't stop her?
The part where you stood outside the door and told me to give it ten minutes?" I kept my voice level.
"Or the part where your daughter was born in a hospital room without you because you were being interviewed about eleven years of financial fraud?"
The silence in the room was complete.
Julian's eyes were red at the edges.
"All of it," he said quietly.
"That's not enough."
"I know."
"It's not enough for me and it's not enough for her." I stood.
"Your attorney knows how to reach the investigators.
I have nothing to offer you, Julian.
I have a daughter to go back to."
I picked up my bag.
Garrett Foss said, "Mrs.
Sterling, if you could just—"
"My name," I said without turning around, "is Audrey Marsh.
It was always Audrey Marsh."
I walked out.
In the hallway, I stood still for a moment with my hand against the wall.
Then I went back to the NICU.
My daughter was awake.
The nurse said she had been awake for most of the afternoon, looking around with those open eyes like she was already taking inventory of the world.
I sat beside the incubator and put my finger through the small opening.
May you like
She wrapped her hand around it immediately.
I did not cry until then.
