Chapter 344

[ 998 words ]

Katia’s POV

“For how long, Grandma Celeste? How many times did I sit in this house and eat at your table and hold Aiden in this room while you knew exactly who I was and said nothing p>

She didn’t answer that one. She looked at her hands instead, and the not answering was worse than anything she could have said.

I turned to Gail.

Gail still wasn’t looking at me.

“You’re my best friend,” I said. “You have been my best friend since before any of this. And you are Aiden’s godmother. You held him when he was six months old, and you promised me you would always choose him first.” My voice held. I made sure it held. “What is your excuse p>

Gail set the cup down. Her hands were shaking.

“Did he ask you too?” I said. “Did Julian tell you to say nothing p>

“Katia p>

“Answer me, Gail p>

She looked up then, finally, and in her eyes was something that looked a great deal like a woman who had been living with a decision she knew was wrong and had run out of ways to justify it.

“Did he also ask you to stop me from taking Aiden home?” I said before she could speak. “Those first visits, when I would come here and Aiden would ask to leave with me and there was always a reason it wasn’t the right time, always some excuse about his routine or his school schedule or the staff not being ready. Was that Julian? Did he tell you to make sure my son stayed in this house p>

“Katia, he said it was to protect Aiden p>

“Protect him from what?” I said. “From his own mother p>

“He said until you knew the truth, until everything was sorted, it was better for Aiden to stay somewhere he was already settled.” Her voice was cracking now, coming apart at every seam. “That’s what he told us. That it wasn’t safe for things to change until you knew p>

“And you believed him,” I said. “You believed that keeping a little boy from his mother was the safe choice p>

“He threatened that we would never see Aiden again if any of us told you he was your husband,” Gail said, the words finally coming out in a rush, like she had been holding them back for so long that releasing them physically hurt. “Any of us. Me, Grandma Celeste, anyone in this house. He said if one word of it reached you before he was ready, Aiden would be gone and none of us would ever see him again. I was scared, Katia. I was so scared of losing him that I chose wrong, and I have known every single day since that I chose wrong, and I am sorry. I am so sorry. But I need you to know I did it because I was terrified of losing your son, not because I ever stopped choosing you p>

The room went so quiet I could hear the clock on the mantle behind me.

I looked at her for a long moment, my best friend, sitting on the settee with her hands shaking in her lap, and I thought about our Harvard days and how she loved Aiden like he was her own.

“He used Aiden,” I said. “He used my son to keep two women quiet, and both of you let him p>

Neither of them said anything.

I looked at Grandma Celeste again, and something in my voice came out quieter than I expected, the anger not gone but sitting underneath something else now, something colder and more calculating.

“Does he have offshore accounts?” I said. “Savings set up for Aiden. Shares. Anything I should know about p>

Grandma Celeste looked at me for a long moment, reading whatever was sitting on my face, and then something shifted in her expression, something that was not quite relief but was close to it, like a woman who had been holding a second secret and had just been given permission to set it down.

“After I confirmed you were his wife,” she said, “I had someone look into his holdings. His full holdings, not just what the company reports publicly.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Twenty-five percent of WEG is registered under your name, Katia. Has been for some time p>

The room went very quiet.

“I’m sorry?” I said.

“Twenty-five percent,” she said again. “Of Windsor Empire Group. Under your name. Not held in trust, not conditional on anything. Yours p>

I stood there and let that settle, and it didn’t settle; it just kept turning over, refusing to land anywhere that made sense against everything else I had walked into this house carrying.

“He transferred shares to me,” I said. “While pretending he didn’t know who I was p>

“There’s more,” Grandma Celeste said. “Every property he owns, every one of them, the mansion here, the penthouse, the island, the properties in London and Paris, and the house in Cape Town he hasn’t visited in three years, none of them are registered to Julian Windsor alone. They are all registered to Julian and Katia Windsor. Both names. On every single deed p>

Gail made a small sound from the settee that she quickly covered with her hand.

I didn’t look at her. I kept my eyes on Grandma Celeste, because I needed to understand what I was actually hearing before I let myself react to it.

“Every property,” I said.

“Every one p>

“Including this house p>

“Including this house, except that it’s under me and Gail too since it’s a family house. 4 owners for this one,” Grandma Celeste said. “The moment I found out, I checked everything I could access. There was not a single holding, not a single asset of any significance in his name, that did not also carry yours. Savings accounts set aside for Aiden; those are under both your names as well, co-signed, and accessible to you from the day they were opened p>

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