Chapter 10 - THE MONEY BENEATH THE FOUNDATION
A forensic audit began after Julian removed Eleanor from temporary control of the Mercer Cultural Trust.
The board resisted.
Eleanor had chaired the trust for twenty-five years.
Her name appeared on hospital wings and scholarship programs.
The audit revealed that several charities existed mostly on paper.
Millions moved through consulting companies owned by Adrian’s associates.
Some money funded legitimate projects.
Other funds paid for private aircraft, apartments, and political donations.
The missing amounts were smaller than the Mercer fortune.
They were large enough to create crimes.
Adrian claimed the payments were strategic expenses.
Eleanor called them the cost of maintaining influence.
Julian called them theft.
The board suspended both of them.
Then Eleanor filed an emergency petition declaring Julian mentally unstable.
The petition described his sudden belief that a florist was his daughter.
It claimed grief over Claire had produced delusions.
Dr. Marcus Vale signed the medical declaration.
He had not examined Julian in three years.
The petition requested that Adrian receive temporary control of Julian’s shares.
Leah read the document in Julian’s attorney’s office.
“They are doing to you what they did to my mother.”
Julian looked toward the final page.
“They are using love as evidence of illness.”
The petition cited the unfinished cradle.
Eleanor claimed Julian had become obsessed with an imaginary child.
Leah’s anger became colder.
“They knew I was alive.”
“They wrote the petition as though believing me was madness.”
Julian’s attorney requested an independent evaluation.
Julian passed every cognitive test.
The court hearing was scheduled for Friday.
Eleanor’s team released photographs of Julian and Leah leaving the lake house.
Headlines called Leah the florist controlling a lonely billionaire.
Reporters appeared outside her studio again.
A brick came through the front window.
No one was injured.
Leah wanted to close the business temporarily.
Her employees refused.
“We did nothing wrong,” her assistant Ana said.
“If we close, they learn fear works.”
Mateo installed cameras.
Julian offered private security.
Leah accepted two guards under one condition.
“They report to me.”
“Not you.”
Julian agreed.
At the hearing, Eleanor entered wearing black.
She looked like a grieving sister.
May you like
Leah entered carrying Claire’s cedar box.
The court would hear the entire story.
