Chapter 5 - Crossing the Line
Julian had failed to get the medical proxy, and he had failed to sway the board. His creditors were closing in. He had less than forty-eight hours before his embezzlement was discovered. I knew what he would do next, because I knew the limits of his morality. He had none.
That night, the hospital was quiet. Marcus was on his break. The lights in my room were dimmed. I lay still, pretending to be asleep, when the door slowly pushed open.
Julian crept into the room. He didn't look polished anymore. He looked unhinged. He was sweating, his tie loosened, his eyes darting frantically.
He walked to the foot of my bed. “You just couldn't die, could you, old man?” he whispered, his voice trembling with venom. “You have millions. You don't even need it. You're going to spend the rest of your life drinking through a straw, and you won't even let me have a fraction of what I deserve.”
He pulled a document from his jacket. It was a Power of Attorney form. But it wasn't blank. It already had a signature on it. My signature.
He had forged my signature and backdated it to a week before my stroke.
“I didn't want to do it this way,” Julian muttered to himself, taking a photo of my sleeping face with his phone, likely to prove he had "visited" me to the bank managers. “But you left me no choice. The bank will accept the backdated signature. By the time Evelyn realizes the money is gone, it will be in the Caymans.”
May you like
He turned and slipped out of the room.
I opened my good eye. I didn't feel fear. I felt a cold, absolute satisfaction. He hadn't just tried to manipulate me; he had just committed federal wire fraud and forgery. The trap was sprung.
