Chapter 12 - Julian Finally Says Why
Julian asked to see me before entering his plea.
My attorney advised against it.
My father hated the idea.
I went anyway.
Not alone.
We met through reinforced glass in a secured visitation room.
He looked smaller.
That surprised me.
For ten years, Julian had filled whatever room he entered. Maybe power does that. Or maybe I had been supplying part of the illusion myself.
He picked up the phone.
I did too.
“You look good,” he said.
I stared at him.
“Don’t.”
His face tightened.
“I never meant for Eleanor to—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
I asked the only question I still needed answered.
“When did you stop seeing me as your wife?”
He looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
For a long time, he said nothing.
Then:
“When I learned Northstar was you.”
That hurt more than I expected.
Not because I wanted his love back.
Because it confirmed the moral break exactly.
“Why?”
“You controlled the one thing I thought was mine.”
“Your company?”
“My life.”
I almost laughed.
“No, Julian. I funded your company. You built it.”
“You could have taken it away.”
“I could have asked questions.”
“To you, that’s different.”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t to me.”
There it was.
He had confused accountability with dispossession.
A question with an attack.
My existence as an independent person with rights became a threat because he could no longer control the story around me.
“And Victoria?”
He closed his eyes.
“A mistake.”
“She thought you loved her.”
“I told her what she needed to hear.”
I felt something inside me settle.
That was Julian in one sentence.
People were inputs.
Love was leverage.
Truth was whatever created the result he wanted.
I stood.
He looked alarmed.
“Genevieve.”
I paused.
“I did love you.”
“I know.”
That seemed to surprise him.
Then I added:
“That’s what makes what you did unforgivable.”
I hung up the phone.
He kept talking through the glass.
May you like
I couldn’t hear him anymore.
And for the first time in ten years, I didn’t need to.
