Chapter 28 - The Safe Deposit Box
Ms. Holloway was not a monster, but she was a bureaucrat bound by strict state protocols.
For two agonizing hours, she walked through our property with her clipboard, noting the exposed wiring in the framed house, the open trenches where the plumbing pipes were being laid, and the cramped conditions of our temporary living trailer. Every unpainted stud, every power tool left on a sawhorse was documented in her notes.
Richard Vance stood by his town car with an insufferable smirk, checking his gold Rolex.
"A construction zone is hardly a suitable environment for an eight-month-old infant, let alone a delicate child of Master Julian-Leo’s background," Vance remarked loudly to the social worker. "Mrs. Victoria Ward has an eight-bedroom suite prepared at the Four Seasons in downtown Austin, complete with a licensed pediatric nurse and private security, pending the court hearing on Monday."
"He is not going to a hotel with that woman!" Julian-Leo suddenly shouted. He stepped off the trailer porch, his hands clenched into fists, trembling with rage. "You tell my grandmother that I am not her toy! I will burn her money! I will burn her townhouse before I live with her!"
"Leo, go inside," Alexander commanded softly, placing himself between his son and the lawyer.
"Master Julian-Leo, your emotional volatility only confirms our concerns regarding parental alienation," Vance said smoothly, scribbling something on his notepad.
"Get off my property, Vance," Alexander growled, his voice dropping an octave, deadly and low. "You have served your papers. Ms. Holloway has completed her initial walkthrough. Unless you have a warrant signed by a Travis County judge, you are trespassing."
Ms. Holloway looked between Alexander’s protective stance over his children and Vance’s predatory sneer. "The emergency hearing is scheduled for Monday morning at nine o'clock before Judge Hernandez, Mr. Ward. The children may remain in your physical custody over the weekend, but I will be submitting an interim report noting structural safety concerns regarding the infant’s primary shelter."
When the town car and the state cruiser finally disappeared down the caliche road, Alexander slammed his fist against the cedar framing with such force that the wood cracked.
"We have nothing," Alexander breathed, his voice thick with panic. "Arthur covered his tracks for twelve years. Marcus Sterling is the chief of psychiatry at Mount Sinai; his affidavit will carry immense weight with any family court judge. If they pull my medical records from 2012, before I was clean, before I met you... they will paint me as a deranged lunatic who dragged his family into a slum."
"We don't have nothing," I said, my mind racing, adrenaline surging through my blood.
Alexander looked at me, bewildered. "Clara, you heard Vance—"
"Genevieve Duprès," I interrupted, grabbing Alexander’s arm. "Think, Alexander! Why did Genevieve bring you that dossier in the first place? She was Arthur’s personal attorney. She hated Victoria. Arthur fired Genevieve from the family office six months before he died because she refused to help Victoria alter the trust!"
Alexander blinked, a spark of realization cutting through the despair in his eyes. "Genevieve’s loyalties were never to Victoria. They were to the Laurent trust."
"Where is she staying?" I demanded.
"The Driskill Hotel downtown," Alexander replied. "She stayed in Austin to finalize the corporate registration of the Texas subsidiary."
"Get in the truck," I said, grabbing Lila’s diaper bag and Julian-Leo’s hand. "Now."
Thirty minutes later, we sat in the leather-lined private library of the historic Driskill Hotel. Genevieve Duprès sat across from us, sipping an espresso with the same ice-cold detachment she had displayed on the dirt path of our home.
"Victoria’s petition is ruthless, but entirely predictable," Genevieve said, setting down her porcelain cup. "She has paid Marcus Sterling three million dollars through a shell foundation in the Bahamas to fabricate those psychiatric evaluations."
"Can you prove it?" Alexander leaned forward, desperate.
Genevieve opened a slim leather folio. "Arthur was a paranoid man, Alexander. He did not trust Victoria any more than he trusted you. Before he died, he deposited a secondary safe deposit key at the Credit Suisse branch in Zurich, cross-referenced to an encrypted digital vault hosted in Geneva."
She withdrew a heavy brass key and a thumb drive with a Swiss military insignia.
"What is on that drive?" I asked.
Genevieve looked directly at Julian-Leo, her cold eyes softening for a fraction of a second. "The audio recordings of Arthur Ward’s final meeting with Marcus Sterling. Arthur had their entire conspiracy recorded. In the tape, Arthur explicitly orders Sterling to medicate Alexander into a stupor in 2012 to prevent him from stopping Elena’s deportation. And... there is a final letter from Elena Laurent, deposited with her Swiss notary forty-eight hours before the automobile accident."
Julian-Leo caught his breath. "A letter?"
May you like
"Addressed to your father’s future wife," Genevieve whispered, sliding the drive across the mahogany table toward me. "She knew Alexander would not stay alone forever. She left instructions."
***
