Chapter 4 - The Hearing
By nine the next morning, Julian's accusations were everywhere.
The articles called me a secretive heiress and suggested I'd engineered the takeover to punish a cheating husband.
Nobody mentioned the employees whose jobs we'd saved.
The allegation had worked exactly as Julian intended.
At the courthouse, his attorney spoke about secrecy, betrayal, and the supposed diversion of marital wealth.
She never explained how an independent investment partnership could be converted into Julian's personal entitlement.
Elena introduced the capitalization records for Northstar.
The firm predated my marriage and had been funded through assets governed by my mother's estate planning documents.
The acquisition was completed using company capital and a disclosed financing arrangement.
Julian leaned forward as if he could change the documents by staring at them.
His lawyer argued that I'd mixed marital funds into related accounts.
Elena answered with traced transfers and the original operating agreements.
The judge declined to interfere with Aurelia's ownership pending further review.
But she ordered both parties to preserve potentially relevant records.
I could live with that.
Julian couldn't.
In the hallway, he approached beneath the watchful eyes of court officers.
“You think paperwork makes you untouchable?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
“I think paperwork makes claims testable.”
A reporter called out asking whether I was seeking revenge.
I told her we were protecting Aurelia's future and would let the independent investigation speak for itself.
Julian answered with a speech about family betrayal.
Within minutes, the clip was spreading online.
The company stockholders' chat groups erupted.
Employees wondered whether payroll was in danger.
I spent the afternoon with Malcolm and the operations team assuring managers that secured payroll funding remained available.
We also established a confidential channel for employees to report pressure or document irregularities.
A junior accounts-payable analyst named Priya Singh used it first.
She had been told to approve payments without supporting deliverables.
When she objected, Julian threatened to have her transferred.
I thanked her for speaking up and promised protection through an independent process.
She placed a notebook on the table.
“There's a second set of invoices,” she said.
“They disappear from the normal system every Friday.”
Daniel asked how she knew.
“Because someone forgot to erase the audit log.”
He scanned her records in silence.
The entries pointed to a server used by a discontinued Aurelia division.
Only four executives had access.
Julian was one.
Camilla was another.
The third was an executive who had resigned last month.
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And the fourth was Malcolm Reed.
