Chapter 10: Face to Face
The deposition room was small, suffocatingly beige, and smelled faintly of floor wax. Eleanor sat beside her lead attorney, her posture perfect, wearing a sharp navy blue blazer.
When Julian walked in, Eleanor barely recognized him. His tailored suits were gone, replaced by an ill-fitting, off-the-rack gray jacket. He looked exhausted, his hair unkempt, and the arrogant swagger that had defined him was completely erased. He refused to meet her eyes, staring stubbornly at the table.
As the lawyers laid out the evidence—the dummy corporations, the funneled funds, the extravagant gifts bought for Chloe using company money—Julian seemed to shrink in his chair.
"Mr. Vance," Eleanor's attorney asked smoothly, "can you explain why a company credit card was used to purchase a sixty-thousand-dollar diamond necklace on the same day you claimed to be at a manufacturing conference in Chicago?"
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Julian swallowed hard, his hands trembling slightly as he looked at the receipt slid across the table. He finally looked up at Eleanor. It was a pathetic, pleading look, begging for a mercy he had never shown her.
Eleanor held his gaze steadily. Her expression was neither angry nor sad. It was completely indifferent. She was looking at a stranger.
