Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN MY ROBE
The court granted me temporary exclusive use of the house.
Police accompanied me to collect medication and essential belongings while the order was served.
Julian was absent.
Sienna stood in the foyer wearing her own clothes now.
My silk robe had been folded on the staircase.
She smiled when she saw the bruise.
“You made it look worse.”
“I didn’t make anything.”
“You know what I mean.”
Rebecca stopped me from answering.
An officer explained that Sienna had ten minutes to collect personal items that clearly belonged to her.
She claimed jewelry, cosmetics, three dresses, and a leather overnight case.
She also claimed the pearl earrings.
“They were a gift from Julian.”
“They belonged to my mother.”
Sienna laughed.
“Everything belonged to someone before it belonged to someone else.”
The officer photographed the earrings and left them in the house pending proof.
Upstairs, my closet had been rearranged.
Several shelves were empty.
My wedding dress was missing from its storage box.
So were tax files and the small safe where I kept passports and family documents.
Julian had changed the safe code.
A locksmith opened it under police observation.
Inside were no passports.
Only a thick separation agreement dated three weeks earlier.
It assigned the Highland Park house, two investment accounts, and my voting interest in Sterling Meridian to Julian.
In exchange, I would receive a one-time payment of fifty thousand dollars.
My signature appeared on every page.
A medical declaration attached to the agreement stated I had experienced “episodes of emotional instability” and wished Julian to manage my finances temporarily.
The declaration was signed by Dr. Henry Lawson.
I had seen Dr. Lawson once for panic attacks after my mother died.
He denied writing it.
His signature had been copied from an insurance form.
Julian’s strategy widened.
If the deed failed, he had a separation agreement.
If I challenged the agreement, he had a medical declaration.
If the declaration failed, he had the video of me calling Arthur and demanding no mercy.
He was not relying on one lie.
He was building layers.
On the kitchen counter, investigators found an open bottle of wine and two glasses.
Sienna’s fingerprints covered both.
Julian’s were on one.
My blood was found on the foyer molding.
The pattern supported my account of striking the doorframe.
A cleaning cloth in the laundry sink carried diluted blood matching me.
Someone had started wiping the wall before police arrived.
Sienna claimed Julian cleaned because he feared I would accuse him.
The sentence admitted he knew there was evidence.
It did not prove how the blood got there.
Before leaving, I entered Julian’s home office.
His desk drawers were empty.
The computer tower remained, but the hard drive had been removed.
On the wall hung a framed photograph of Sterling Meridian’s first tower.
Arthur stood beside Julian at the groundbreaking.
I remembered how proud my father had looked.
Rebecca noticed a small square of pale paint behind the frame.
Someone had removed another object recently.
A brass key lay on the floor beneath the desk.
It opened a hidden cabinet inside the bookcase.
The cabinet contained only one page.
A schedule of dates.
My therapy appointments.
Arthur’s overseas trips.
Sterling Meridian board meetings.
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And one line circled in red:
CLARA REMOVED BEFORE QUARTER CLOSE.
