Chapter 15 - The Desperate Pawn
The visiting room in the maximum-security state prison smelled of industrial bleach and old despair.
Julian was led in wearing handcuffs, his orange jumpsuit hanging loosely off his thin frame. His face was pale, his eyes sunken, the fire of his previous arrogance entirely extinguished. When he sat down across the glass divider and saw me, he flinched.
"Come to gloat?" Julian rasped, his voice hoarse. "Look at me, Claire. I'm facing twenty years. My mom won't take my calls. My uncle took control of all my remaining assets. I have nothing."
"You have one thing left, Julian," I said, picking up the internal telephone handset.
He picked up his phone slowly. "What?"
"You have the truth," I said clearly. "Victor isn't rescuing your mother out of love. He's using the trust fund to clear his own debts with a foreign syndicate. Once he gets legal control of the money, he's leaving the country. He’s going to leave you and Evelyn to take the federal rap for Arthur's murder."
Julian blinked, his jaw trembling. "No... Mom said Victor was setting up a defense fund for me..."
"Check your prison commissary account, Julian," I urged gently, sliding a printed bank statement against the glass. "Victor closed your defense fund three days ago. You are their fall guy. You signed the corporate loan papers last year when Victor asked you to, didn't you?"
Julian’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at the papers. "He... he said it was just routine tax paperwork..."
"He set you up to take the fall for fifty million dollars of wire fraud," I leaned closer to the glass. "You defended your mother when she slapped our daughter. You stayed silent when she poisoned your father. Look where their loyalty brought you. You are rotting in a cage while they play chess with our daughter's life."
Tears began to spill down Julian's hollow cheeks. "What do you want from me?" he sobbed.
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"Turn state's evidence," I ordered. "Give the Federal Prosecutor every email, every document, and every secret conversation Victor had with you. Help me destroy Victor, and I'll ask the prosecutor to reduce your arson charge."
Julian covered his face with his bruised hands, his body shaking with wracking sobs. "Okay," he whispered into the phone. "Okay... I'll do it."
