Chapter 10 - The man in the video
Investigators became involved.
The divorce hearing had crossed into territory the family court could not resolve by itself.
My financial records were preserved.
Maya’s tablet was secured.
Chloe’s information was documented.
And the contents of Julian’s office and storage location would be handled through appropriate legal process.
But one question remained.
Who was the man in Maya’s second recording?
The voice bothered me.
I had heard it before.
Julian refused to identify him.
Chloe claimed she didn’t know.
Evelyn suddenly became unusually quiet.
That told me enough to keep looking.
Later, investigators isolated the audio.
I listened repeatedly.
Then one phrase triggered a memory.
“You’re betting your entire company on that.”
I had heard those exact speech patterns at Christmas dinners.
Business functions.
Maya’s baptism.
I looked toward Evelyn.
Her eyes told me she already knew.
“Who is he?”
She said nothing.
“Evelyn.”
Julian snapped:
“Don’t answer her.”
And there it was.
The answer before the answer.
The man was Evelyn’s younger brother.
Thomas Reed.
A certified public accountant.
The same man Julian claimed had retired to Florida three years earlier.
Except Thomas had not retired.
He had quietly continued working through consulting entities connected to Julian’s company.
When investigators contacted him, Thomas did something Julian never expected.
He cooperated.
Completely.
Because according to Thomas, he had spent months trying to get Julian to stop.
And he had recorded conversations of his own.
“I knew this would collapse eventually,” Thomas told investigators.
“Why didn’t you report it sooner?”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“Because Evelyn begged me not to destroy her son.”
Then he handed over a storage drive.
“My sister chose Julian.”
May you like
He looked toward me.
“I’m choosing the child.”
