Chapter 5 - The Truth About the Missing MillionsThe flash drive contained everything.
Not just the affair.
Not just the money.
Everything.
Julian had been stealing from the company for three years.
He had created fake subsidiaries.
He had moved money through shell corporations.
He had used company funds to purchase properties.
And he had even manipulated investor reports.
But the worst discovery came later.
Some of the stolen money had been used to buy influence.
Julian had secretly paid several people to vote against me during previous board meetings.
He had spent millions trying to destroy the woman who had helped build his empire.
I sat through the investigation feeling strangely numb.
At one point, Marcus looked at me.
“I should have known.”
“You didn't.”
“I should have protected you.”
“You're protecting me now.”
He nodded.
Then he said:
“I found something else.”
“What?”
He handed me a document.
It was a transfer agreement.
Julian had attempted to sell a controlling portion of the company.
To an unknown investor.
I read the name.
My stomach dropped.
The investor was Victoria.
I looked at her.
“You were going to buy the company?”
She shook her head.
“I didn't know.”
“What?”
“I thought Julian was transferring assets into a joint business.”
She began crying.
“He never told me what it was.”
Julian had planned everything.
He would steal from the company.
Blame Victoria.
Remove me.
Sell the remaining shares.
And disappear.
He hadn't been building a new life.
He had been building an escape route.
The investigators arrested him that afternoon.
As they led him away, he looked at me.
“Elena.”
I stopped.
“I loved you.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I did.”
“You loved what I could give you.”
“That isn't true.”
“You loved having someone who believed in you.”
He lowered his head.
“And when I became successful, you decided I was replaceable.”
He didn't answer.
I walked away.
For eight years, I had wondered whether I wasn't enough.
Now I knew the truth.
May you like
I had always been enough.
He simply wasn't capable of appreciating it.
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