Chapter 3 - The Ghost of Julian Hale
The name Julian Hale hung in the air like a lethal gas.
Vanessa’s face turned a sickening shade of gray. She grabbed Grant’s arm, her voice rising in a panicked shriek. "Grant... Grant, she’s lying! Julian is dead! We saw the wreckage! We saw the police report!"
"Julian’s boat was found destroyed, yes," Mara said, standing up and opening her tablet. "But his body was never recovered. You and your mother were so eager to declare him dead to seize his shares of Hale Maritime that you didn't bother to search the private clinics in Europe."
On the tablet screen, a video began to play.
It showed a modern, high-security medical facility in Switzerland. Sitting in a wheelchair in a sunlit garden was a man with dark, wavy hair, his face scarred but his eyes—the exact, piercing storm-gray eyes of the triplets—staring directly into the camera.
He was holding a copy of that morning's Charleston newspaper.
"Hello, Grant," the man on the screen said, his voice raspy, damaged by fire, but undeniably Julian's. "I hear you've been sleeping in my bed, spending my money, and wearing my family's signet ring. I hope you enjoyed the last five years. Because I'm coming home."
Grant stumbled backward, his chair scraping violently against the hardwood floor. "No... no, this is a trick. He died in the fire. I saw the flames!"
"You saw the flames because you set them, Grant," Dr. Benjamin Ross said, standing up. "Evelyn came to me six months ago. She had found the offshore wire transfers you made to the yacht captain who rigged Julian's boat. She knew that if she confronted you, she would end up like Julian. So she played the part of the submissive, grieving wife, waiting until she was pregnant with Julian's children to strike."
"Pregnant?" Grant stammered, his eyes darting to the DNA report. "How... how could she be pregnant by a man who was in Switzerland?"
"Julian’s frozen samples were stored at the Savannah Cryobank under a private trust before his accident," Arthur Vance explained. "Evelyn had legal access to them. She authorized the transfer herself. The children are Julian’s legal heirs. And under the terms of the Hale family trust, the moment a direct heir of Julian Hale is born alive, your access to the Hale Maritime fortune is immediately suspended."
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The judge looked down at Grant, his face devoid of any mercy.
"Mr. Hale," the judge said, his voice cold. "Based on this evidence, I am denying your petition. Mara Bennett is granted sole, permanent legal and physical custody of the infants. Furthermore, I am issuing an immediate freeze on all personal and corporate accounts associated with Hale Maritime pending a federal investigation into corporate fraud and attempted murder."
