All Chapters of HE LEFT ME WITH NOTHING—TOO BAD I OWNED EVERYTHING: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

For several seconds, no one spoke.Not Evelyn on the phone.Not Julian beside me.Certainly not me.I stared at the authentication record until the words WHITMORE-RESIDENCE-PRIMARY stopped looking like a network name and started looking like an accusation.My house.Eight months ago.Someone had sat inside the home I shared with my husband and authorized the transfer of $750,000 from an investment vehicle I didn’t even know existed.Using my identity.“Camille?” Evelyn said.I found my voice.“What exactly would someone have needed to authorize this?”“Your credentials.”“I didn’t have credentials.”“You did.”I frowned. “How?”“When Wellington was established, an account was created for you as a beneficial owner.”“You created an account for me without telling me the account existed?”“That was the point.”I closed my eyes.“I’m going to need our family to reconsider its definition of financial planning.”Under different circumstances, Evelyn might have laughed.She didn’t.“The cred

I made it three steps toward the lobby doors before Julian caught up with me. He didn’t touch me. That registered. Even now, with my pulse hammering and my thoughts moving too quickly to hold, I noticed that he stayed close enough to intervene if I needed him and far enough away that I didn’t feel managed. “Where are you going?” “I don’t know.” “That usually isn’t your preferred strategy.” I stopped. “No, Julian. My preferred strategy is having facts. Unfortunately, every person in my life appears to have spent the last decade treating facts like party favors.” He absorbed that without flinching. “Fair.” I looked down at the message again. Don’t trust what you think you remember. Grant had always been good at sentences like that. Just enough information to make you question yourself. Never enough to let you stop. I called him. Straight to voicemail. Again. Voicemail. “Of course.” Julian watched me. “Do you know where he’d go?” “He said he was going back to his ap

Whatever this was—our fathers had started it long before either Julian or I had ever met.For several seconds, I forgot Evelyn was still on the phone.I stared at Julian.He stared back.And for once, neither of us had anything clever to say.That might have been the most alarming development of the week.“What exactly did my grandfather write?”Evelyn exhaled slowly.“Not over the phone.”I closed my eyes.“Aunt Evelyn.”“Camille, this isn’t me trying to control the conversation.”“It has an impressive resemblance.”“The memorandum is sealed.”“Then unseal it.”“I can’t.”My temper rose.“Watch me become remarkably creative about the word can’t.”Julian’s mouth twitched.I pointed at him.“Not now.”“I didn’t say anything.”“You were about to.”“Probably.”Evelyn sighed through the phone.“Is he still there?”“Yes.”“Put me on speaker.”I did.“Julian?”“Yes.”“Does the name Harrison Cross mean anything to you?”Julian frowned.“My father?”“I know who he is. I’m asking whether the

Chapter Seventeen: Conflict of InterestJulian was exactly where he said he would be.Parked across the street.Waiting.He looked up from his phone when I opened the passenger door.“That was fast.”“It was an hour and twenty minutes.”“I was trying to sound casual.”“You failed.”“I’ve had a difficult morning.”“You sat in an air-conditioned car.”“The sacrifices I make for you.”I got in and closed the door.He looked at my face.The joking stopped.“What happened?”I held up the copy of Walter’s confession.“My grandfather and your father were business partners.”Julian stared at me.“Excuse me?”“You heard me.”“No, I heard words. I’m waiting for them to become reasonable.”“Apparently they founded a technology company with a Whitmore.”His expression went blank.I continued.“Monroe Cross Technologies.”Julian looked through the windshield.“That name means nothing to me.”“Good.”His eyes returned to mine.“Good?”“Yes.”“Why?”I opened the ownership schedule.“Because if you’d

Camille, I need to talk to you.Please don’t tell Grant.He doesn’t know what I found.I stared at Vanessa’s message.Julian read it over my shoulder.“That feels ominous.”“You’re reading my texts now?”“You held the phone directly in my line of sight.”“You’re tall. That’s hardly my fault.”“Thank you.”“That wasn’t a compliment.”“I choose joy.”I looked back at the message.“Cross Holdings says she contacted them?”“Their counsel says the technical package came from Cole Brand Strategies.”“And Vanessa wants to talk without Grant knowing.”“Yes.”I exhaled.“I’m meeting her.”“I assumed.”“You’re not coming.”Julian pressed a hand to his chest.“I’m wounded.”“You’ll recover.”“Eventually.”I started walking.“Camille.”I stopped.