Chapter 9 - The Mother Behind the Son
Beatrice pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Another empty click.
Walter stood behind her holding the magazine.
He had removed it while she was focused on Julian.
Beatrice spun around.
A police officer tackled her before she could strike him.
The pistol hit the floor.
Julian stared at his mother.
“You brought a gun into my gala?”
Beatrice laughed as the officers handcuffed her.
“Your gala?”
Her voice was sharp enough to cut glass.
“You wouldn’t own a parking space without me.”
Julian looked around at the watching officers, board members, and reporters.
“Don’t listen to her.”
Dr. Keene struggled to stand.
I helped him.
His hands were ice cold.
“Harrison didn’t die from a heart attack,” he said.
The corridor seemed to narrow around me.
“What happened?”
Keene looked at Beatrice.
“She ordered me to change the toxicology report.”
Beatrice said nothing.
Julian stepped between us.
“This man is under duress.”
Keene ignored him.
“Your father discovered that Julian had been moving company money through false construction contracts. He planned to report him to the federal authorities.”
I remembered my father’s final week.
His distracted expression.
The locked drawer in his office.
The dinner where he almost told me something, then changed the subject when Julian entered.
“What did they do to him?”
Keene’s voice broke.
“Beatrice arranged a private meeting at his club. She put a concentrated heart medication into his drink. It triggered cardiac arrest while he was driving home.”
My knees weakened.
Walter steadied me.
Keene continued.
“Julian knew the plan.”
Julian shook his head.
“No.”
“He delivered the medication.”
“That’s a lie.”
Keene looked directly at him.
“You brought it to my clinic in a silver case.”
Julian’s face emptied of expression.
For fifteen years, I had grieved an accident.
I had blamed myself for not answering my father’s final call.
Now I knew he had been trying to warn me.
Beatrice had killed him.
Julian had helped.
Then they had married me into silence, stolen the company, and erased my name.
I looked at the man I had once loved.
“Did you ever love me?”
His eyes moved toward the floor.
That hurt more than an answer.
Beatrice smiled.
“He loved what your signature could give him.”
Julian turned on her.
“Shut up.”
“You were supposed to control her,” Beatrice said. “Instead, you let her walk back into this building.”
“I did everything you demanded.”
“Not everything.”
The officers began leading Beatrice away.
She stopped beside me.
“You think exposing us makes you powerful?”
“No,” I said. “Surviving you did.”
Her smile disappeared.
Then Dr. Keene touched my arm.
“There’s more.”
He removed a key from inside his shirt collar.
“Harrison left a sealed deposit box in your name. Julian has been searching for it since the night your father died.”
Julian lunged for the key.
Police forced him against the wall.
But before they could arrest him, his attorney entered the corridor with a court order.
Julian was not to be detained without formal charges.
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Someone powerful had intervened.
👉 Claire finally knew how her father was murdered, but Julian’s mysterious protector had just stopped the police from taking him away.
