Chapter 16 - Julian Comes Home
Julian was released after serving twenty-five months.
He was thirty-three.
I received victim notification because my folio/privacy and divorce-related records had made me recognized affected party, though financial company was main victim.
He would live in Wisconsin initially with a college friend.
Supervised release.
Employment restrictions around fiduciary roles.
No contact with me unless I consented.
He did not contact.
The first six months passed.
Then one year.
Nothing.
I heard through company because he still owned 22%.
His voting remained through independent proxy for period under shareholder settlement.
He received distributions only after restitution obligations.
He found work in operations for a manufacturing distributor.
Not finance.
No access to client funds.
He completed restitution three years after release using share-sale proceeds and wages.
Then he requested through attorney to send one letter.
I thought for a week.
Allowed.
Elena,
I have rewritten this enough times to know explanation can become another way of asking you to carry my feelings.
Then:
I will not ask forgiveness.
Good.
He wrote:
I did not marry you because of your shares. I proposed because I loved you. Later, when the refinancing crisis started, I let my mother convince me that marriage entitled me to use your trust in me as a business resource.
Then:
The fact that love came first does not make what followed less dishonest.
That line hurt.
Then:
I knew you might say no. That is why I did not ask before the wedding.
Then:
I told myself I was protecting Mercer Heritage.
I was also protecting my own consulting money, my standing with Mom, and my pride.
Then:
When you walked into bedroom, I pretended to sleep because I was ashamed and still hoped you would accept whatever explanation came easiest.
Then:
I am sorry.
No “come back.”
No “we were meant.”
At bottom:
I will not contact you again unless you ask.
He did not.
I never replied.
I kept letter with legal file.
Not because romance.
Because truth.
Then Victoria.
Prison letters through counsel.
First year none.
Second:
She blamed me.
I did not receive; lawyer summarized and I declined.
Third year:
Another.
Declined.
After appeal finalized, one more.
I allowed.
Elena,
I spent most of my life believing a family business belonged to the family before it belonged to the company.
Then:
David tried to teach me otherwise.
I resented him for it.
Then:
When you appeared with his twenty-four percent and none of his fear of confrontation, I saw him again.
Interesting.
Then:
I did not climb into your wedding bed for anything sexual. I know that is not the injury that mattered, but I am ashamed you had to wonder.
Then:
I opened his folio because I believed papers connected to Mercer Heritage were more mine than yours.
Then:
That belief is same one that let me alter minutes.
There.
Then:
I am sorry.
No request.
I wrote no answer.
May you like
Some apologies belong to speaker.
Not recipient.
