Chapter 3 - The Truth Uncovered
Julian didn't go to the office the next day. Instead, he hired the most ruthless, efficient private investigator in the city.
"I need to know everything," Julian demanded, sitting across from the PI in his shadowed study. "Where she went. How she lived. Everything."
Three days later, the file was placed on Julian's desk.
As he read the pages, Julian physically wept. Clara had nearly died during the delivery. The hospital bills had drained her meager savings. She had worked two remote data-entry jobs, sleeping only three hours a night, just to afford formula and diapers. She had lived in a cramped, unheated apartment in Brooklyn before finally saving enough to move to Ohio.
And the most devastating detail of all? The trust fund Julian had secretly set up for her—a million-dollar account he thought would ease his conscience—remained completely untouched. She hadn't taken a single cent of his money.
She had raised his three children with nothing but her own blood, sweat, and fiercely devoted love.
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Julian looked at a photograph the PI had snapped of Clara at a park in Ohio. She looked exhausted, her hair messy, wearing a cheap coat. But she was smiling brightly as the three toddlers chased a butterfly.
She possessed a wealth he had never known. And he realized, with a terrifying certainty, that he would give away every dollar he had just to hold one of those children.
