Chapter 5 - The Heiress Speaks
Julianna Vance did not scream, cry, or throw her drink. The daughter of an oil magnate who had survived cutthroat corporate takeovers since childhood, she simply walked toward the buffet table, picked up the bundle of letters, and methodically looked through the dated medical charts. Her manicured thumb rubbed across the neonatal surgical clearance form signed by Johns Hopkins pediatric cardiologists.
"Julianna, please," Andrew pleaded, reaching for her hand. "This was before I met you. It has nothing to do with us. We have our future planned—the embassy post in Brussels, the foundation gala next month—"
"Did you know about this?" Julianna asked, turning her glacial green eyes toward Eleanor Whitmore.
Eleanor swallowed hard, her hand fluttering to her pearl necklace. "Julianna, dear, Andrew was so young. He had his entire career ahead of him. A junior officer saddled with four infants would never have made major. We simply thought... we thought it was best to handle it quietly through our family office."
"You paid the family attorney to intercept her court filings, didn't you?" Julianna stated, connecting the dots with ruthless business precision. She turned slowly back to Andrew. "You told me your ex-wife was a bitter, vindictive woman who took a lump-sum settlement and moved to the Midwest to live off your generosity."
"She did take money!" Andrew lied, his eyes darting frantically toward the front door. "She had a settlement—"
"There was no settlement," I countered, pulling out a certified document from the Maryland Department of Human Services. "Andrew petitioned the court for an uncontested decree claiming zero shared dependents, having sworn under oath that no children resulted from the marriage. That document right there is a felony perjury referral, submitted to the state attorney general's office last Tuesday."
Julianna looked down at the massive eight-carat emerald-cut diamond ring on her finger. Slowly, deliberately, she slid the platinum band off her knuckle. She walked toward Andrew, who stood frozen with his hands half-extended in a begging posture.
May you like
She didn't hand it to him. She dropped it into his half-empty champagne glass that sat on a nearby pedestal table. The diamond settled at the bottom of the fizzy amber liquid with a quiet click.
"My family donates twenty million dollars annually to military family charities, Andrew," Julianna whispered, loud enough for every senator and general in the room to hear. "I will not have our name tied to a coward who left four premature infants to die in an ICU so he could keep his country club membership."
