Chapter 186
[ 1,137 words ]
Julian’s POV
I drove to the estate at noon.
I had not called ahead. I did not need to. Grandma Celeste was always there and always available to me, and there were conversations that needed to happen in person, and this was one of them.
She was in the sitting room when I arrived. She looked up when I walked in, and her expression told me she had been expecting this visit. Not today necessarily, but soon. She had been expecting it for a while.
“Sit down,” she said.
I sat.
I had driven the forty minutes from the city thinking about how to start this conversation. I had not found a clean way in. So I started at the beginning.
“When I met Katia,” I said, “for the first time in the boardroom — the WEG-IG partnership meeting — I didn’t know who she was. I had never met her before. But the moment she walked in there was something.” I paused. “I didn’t know how to explain it then, and I’m not sure I can explain it now. A pull. Like recognising something I hadn’t known I was looking for p>
Grandma said nothing. She was listening with the full, patient attention she gave to things that mattered to her.
“I told myself it was attraction,” I said. “That it was professional respect. That it was anything except what it actually was.” I looked at my hands. “I spent months telling myself a lot of things about Katia Kensington p>
“And now?” Grandma said.
“And now I know who she is,” I said. “I saw the article this morning. I saw the photograph.” I looked at her directly. “I saw the ring p>
Grandma was very still.
“I have to tell you something,” I said. “Something I should have told you six years ago.” She waited. “I didn’t lose the ring,” I said.
The sitting room was completely quiet.
“I lied to you,” I said. “Six years ago when I came home from Las Vegas and told you the ring was lost—I lied. I knew where it was. I knew what had happened to it.” I paused. “I got married in Las Vegas. A night I don’t remember clearly — our drinks had been tampered with; I found that out later. I married a woman whose face I never saw and whose name I didn’t know. I gave her the ring. And the next morning she was gone, and I had nothing except a marriage certificate with two aliases on it and the knowledge that somewhere in the world there was a woman wearing the Windsor fire stone who had no idea who had given it to her p>
Grandma closed her eyes for a moment.
“I told you it was lost because I didn’t know how to explain that I had given our family ring to a stranger in Las Vegas during a night I could barely remember,” I said. “That was wrong. I should have told you the truth p>
She opened her eyes. She looked at me.
“Six years,” she said.
“Six years,” I confirmed.
“And the woman you married,” she said carefully. “You found her p>
“She was in my boardroom,” I said. “She has been in my boardroom for over a year.” I reached into my jacket and took out the marriage certificate. I had been carrying it in my pocket since the morning — not the safe, but my pocket — and I set it on the table between us.
Grandma looked at it. At the two names. Jules and Kat.
“Katia Kensington is my wife,” I said. “She has been my wife for six years. That certificate is fully registered in Nevada. The marriage is legal and valid.” I paused. “She doesn’t know who Jules is. She doesn’t know she married me. She has been carrying the ring for six years without knowing who gave it to her p>
Grandma looked at the certificate for a long time.
“And Delia,” she said.
“Delia was never my wife,” I said. “What we had was an arrangement. I told her from the beginning — before the arrangement began — that I was already married. I didn’t tell her to whom because I didn’t know. I told her we would never share a room, that I would never touch her, that she was playing a role and nothing more.” I paused. “She agreed to that arrangement. She knew what it was from the first day p>
“And yet she has been living in this house. Does she know your wife is her sister p>
“She has been living in this house,” I agreed. “And I am ending that arrangement. I should have ended it before now. I had been using it as a reason to keep things at a distance while I tried to find Kat — while I tried to understand who Katia was and whether my suspicions were right.” I looked at Grandma. “I was not fair to Delia. I know that. But I was never her husband. Not in any way that counts and No she doesn’t know anything p>
Grandma looked at the certificate again. At the names.
“Jules,” she said.
“My circuit name, the unknown racer,” I said. “The name I have used on the underground racing circuit for fifteen years p>
She looked up at me. Something moved in her expression — not surprise exactly. The expression of someone whose suspicion had just been confirmed.
“You race,” she said.
“I do,” I said.
She was quiet for a moment.
“As does Katia,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Catwoman,” Grandma said simply.
I stared at my grandmother.
“Katia is Catwoman? How did you know?” I said.
“I suspected,” she said. “She told me herself recently. Over lunch.” She folded her hands. “She told me many things over lunch p>
I sat with that.
“Then you know more than I thought,” I said.
“I usually do,” Grandma said.
She picked up the marriage certificate and held it carefully, looking at it the way she looked at things she had been waiting a long time to see. Then she set it down and looked at me.
“What are you going to do?” she said.
“Tell her,” I said. “Everything. All of it. Who I am. What the certificate means. The ring.” I paused. “Aiden p>
Grandma nodded slowly.
“Then do it,” she said. “And Julian—” she paused. “—do it soon. This is already bigger than either of you p>
I picked up the certificate and put it back in my pocket.
“I know,” I said.
I stood.
She reached up and put her hand briefly on mine.
“You are your father’s son,” she said quietly. “He also took too long to say the important things. But he always said them eventually p>
I looked at her hand on mine.
Then I left.
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