Chapter 10 - The Brother They Used Against Her
Helena survived the night.
Barely.
Julian did not leave the hospital.
Abby stayed until dawn.
At six thirty, Caleb called.
She answered immediately.
“You okay?”
His voice sounded strange.
“Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Are the guards outside?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“Abby, there are police here.”
Her chest tightened.
“Why?”
“They say they need to search my room.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Julian looked up from across the hospital waiting room.
Abby put the call on speaker.
A detective’s voice came faintly through Caleb’s phone.
“Sir, please step away.”
Caleb said.
“I want my sister here.”
Abby stood.
“Do not consent to anything.”
The detective spoke.
“We have a warrant.”
Julian was already calling his attorney.
Abby asked.
“What are they looking for?”
Caleb went quiet.
Then he whispered.
“Cross Foundation financial files.”
Julian’s face hardened.
Abby’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
“They say someone accessed confidential files using my university login.”
Caleb sounded terrified now.
“I didn’t do it.”
“I know.”
Julian said.
“Caleb, do not touch your computer.”
Caleb heard him.
“Is Cross there?”
“Yes.”
“Great.”
His laugh was panicked.
“This family keeps improving my week.”
Police searched the apartment.
They found an encrypted flash drive beneath Caleb’s mattress.
He had never seen it.
On the drive were stolen Cross Foundation files.
Transfer records.
Employee data.
Copies of Julian’s personal schedules.
And an unfinished email addressed to a financial journalist.
It appeared Caleb had been selling confidential information.
By noon, he was in custody for questioning.
Abby nearly lost control when detectives led him out.
Julian’s attorney intervened.
Caleb was not formally charged.
Not yet.
But his university suspended him pending investigation.
His tuition problem suddenly became irrelevant.
Abby sat in Julian’s car outside the precinct.
“He was next.”
Julian knew what she meant.
Her mother.
Naomi.
Patricia.
Helena.
Now Caleb.
The strategy never changed.
Plant evidence.
Create guilt.
Force silence.
Julian said.
“We clear him.”
Abby turned on him.
“How?”
His eyes met hers.
“The same way we clear you.”
“Everyone believes computers.”
“Computers leave trails.”
“So do people.”
“Yes.”
Abby looked toward the precinct doors.
“Someone had access to our apartment twice.”
“The first time they stole Mom’s letters.”
“The second time they planted the drive.”
Julian nodded.
“Security outside?”
“They were yours.”
“Yes.”
“Could one of them have done it?”
“I hired them through a company Voss does not control.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Julian made a call.
Within an hour, they learned one of the guards had disappeared during his shift for twenty-three minutes.
His name was Eric Sloan.
He had worked for Voss years earlier.
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“I missed it.”
Abby looked at him.
“What?”
“I checked current employment.”
“I didn’t check historical contracts.”
“You aren’t omniscient.”
“I used to believe money made that unnecessary.”
Despite everything, Abby smiled faintly.
“That may be the most billionaire sentence you’ve said.”
They located Sloan’s vehicle near LaGuardia Airport.
Abandoned.
Inside the trunk was blood.
Not Sloan’s.
Patricia Lowe’s.
Abby had to sit down when detectives told her.
But there was no body.
Patricia might still be alive.
The blood proved connection.
It also created another problem.
Sloan had disappeared.
Voss had disappeared.
Leonard had disappeared.
Everyone holding answers was running.
Except Celeste.
Celeste remained publicly visible.
She issued a statement expressing concern for Helena.
She denied involvement in any criminal activity.
She described Abby as “a troubled former employee.”
Then she called an emergency Cross Holdings board meeting.
Julian received the notice while sitting beside Helena’s hospital bed.
His expression darkened.
“She is moving against me.”
Abby frowned.
“How?”
“If the board believes my judgment has been compromised, they can temporarily remove me as CEO.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of everything.”
“The test.”
“The public scandal.”
“My mother’s poisoning.”
“Your allegations.”
Abby almost laughed.
“So she creates chaos and then blames you for chaos.”
“Yes.”
“Effective.”
“Very.”
The board meeting was scheduled for the next morning.
Julian had eleven hours.
Abby expected him to call lawyers.
Instead he asked her to come to his penthouse.
“What are we looking for?”
“My father’s personal safe.”
She followed him into a library she had never cleaned.
Behind one shelf was an old mechanical safe.
Julian entered a code.
Wrong.
He tried another.
Wrong.
Abby stared.
“You don’t know it?”
“It belonged to my father.”
“Why keep a safe you can’t open?”
“Sentiment.”
“That is a very expensive paperweight.”
Julian ignored her.
He thought about Gideon.
Then entered six numbers.
The safe opened.
Abby raised her eyebrows.
“What was it?”
“My birthday.”
“That’s almost sweet.”
“No.”
Julian’s face changed.
“It was Celeste’s birthday.”
Inside the safe were documents.
Old photographs.
A watch.
Two passports belonging to Gideon.
And a sealed envelope marked JULIAN.
He opened it.
The letter had been written shortly before Gideon’s death.
Julian,
If you ever open this, it means either I finally told you the truth or I failed again.
Julian stopped.
Abby stood beside him.
He continued.
Celeste has spent her life believing Cross belongs to her.
She believes I stole the company from her when our father chose me.
She stole foundation funds partly for money and partly to prove she could control the family without consequence.
I covered for her.
That was my greatest failure.
Not because she deserved protection.
Because I believed exposing her would destroy you, your mother, and the company.
Cowards often call fear responsibility.
Abby looked at Julian.
He noticed the same phrase Marianne had essentially used.
Gideon continued.
Elena Torres died because I hesitated.
Marianne Mercer survived because I finally acted, though not bravely enough to clear her name.
Martin Voss helped Celeste.
Leonard Vale helped me conceal the aftermath.
Do not assume this makes Leonard innocent.
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
Leonard knew everything.
He helped alter the audit.
He moved money back into foundation accounts.
He also discovered Voss’s insurance policy on Elena.
I ordered him to destroy it.
He did not.
If I die unexpectedly, find Vale.
He kept copies.
Abby stared.
“Leonard has evidence.”
“Yes.”
“And he disappeared after warning you.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe he isn’t running from us.”
Julian’s expression changed.
“He may be running from Celeste.”
The letter continued.
There is one more truth.
Julian stopped again.
His face changed as he read silently.
Abby waited.
“What?”
He folded the letter.
“Nothing.”
She stared.
“You just turned white.”
“It is personal.”
“We are investigating murder together.”
“Some things remain personal.”
Abby’s anger sparked.
“Fine.”
She turned away.
Julian looked at the folded paper.
Then closed his eyes.
“Abigail.”
She turned.
He handed her the letter.
She read.
There is one more truth.
Celeste’s hatred of you began before you were born.
Your mother became pregnant at a time when our marriage was failing.
Celeste convinced herself the child was not mine.
She was wrong.
I had a private test performed.
You are my son.
But Celeste never believed the result.
If she ever discovers the original laboratory records, she may use the old rumor to challenge your inheritance and voting control.
Abby looked up.
“So she can attack your ownership.”
“Yes.”
“Does that matter now?”
“It may tomorrow.”
He sat.
“Cross Holdings’ controlling trust depends on Gideon Cross’s biological descendants.”
Abby understood.
“If she convinces the board you weren’t his son…”
“My voting control can be frozen pending legal review.”
Abby stared.
“She poisoned your mother.”
“Then framed my brother.”
“And now she might take your company using a twenty-two-year-old paternity rumor.”
“Yes.”
Abby sank into the chair.
“Your family makes mine look relaxing.”
Julian laughed.
A real laugh.
Brief.
Unexpected.
It changed his entire face.
Abby looked at him too long.
He noticed.
The air shifted.
For one second, the murder investigation disappeared.
Then Julian’s phone rang.
Reality returned.
His attorney.
Julian answered.
His expression changed within seconds.
“What do you mean?”
Abby watched.
“Who submitted it?”
A pause.
Julian looked at her.
“Send me the document.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
Julian showed her the email.
A legal petition had been filed in Delaware seeking temporary suspension of Julian’s controlling voting rights.
The petitioner was Celeste Cross.
Attached was an old laboratory report.
It claimed Gideon Cross was not Julian’s biological father.
Abby looked at him.
“I thought Gideon said the test proved you were his.”
“It did.”
“So this is fake.”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
Julian stared at the document.
“The original laboratory closed in 2010.”
Abby looked toward Gideon’s letter.
“Then we find the real result.”
Julian’s face tightened.
“Assuming Celeste didn’t destroy it twenty years ago.”
The next morning, Julian entered the Cross boardroom still CEO.
Ninety minutes later, he walked out without a company.
By a vote of nine to four, the board placed him on administrative leave.
Celeste became interim chair and executive director.
Martin Voss’s security access was restored under her authority.
Abby was waiting outside.
She watched employees avoid Julian’s eyes.
For years, those same people had rushed to open doors for him.
Now they acted as though power itself had left his body.
Julian stopped beside Abby.
She could see the humiliation beneath his controlled expression.
“So.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“How does it feel to be poor?”
He looked at her.
“I still have several billion dollars.”
She sighed.
“You ruin everything.”
Then an executive assistant hurried toward them.
“Mr. Cross.”
Julian turned.
The assistant handed him a plain envelope.
“A courier delivered this.”
“No return address.”
Julian opened it.
Inside was a motel key card.
And a note.
IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT ELENA, COME ALONE.
L.V.
Abby stared.
“Leonard.”
Julian turned the note over.
On the back was an address in New Jersey.
Abby looked at him.
“You are not going alone.”
The note said alone.
“So did every trap in every bad movie.”
Julian stared at her.
Then he noticed one additional line beneath the address.
BRING MARIANNE MERCER’S DAUGHTER.
Abby read it twice.
Apparently Leonard Vale did not want Julian alone after all.
He wanted Abigail.
May you like
And nobody knew why.
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