Chapter 13 - The Wolf’s Corner
Julian sat in the federal holding facility in lower Manhattan, his expensive cashmere sweater replaced by a coarse orange jumpsuit. His broken arm was secured with a cheap government sling.
Across the steel table sat his lead defense attorney, a man whose billing rate was two thousand dollars an hour, but whose expression looked like that of a coroner performing an autopsy.
"Bail has been denied," the attorney said flatly, closing his leather folder. "Judge Abrams cited you as an extreme flight risk due to your private aircraft at Teterboro and the foreign accounts discovered in Zurich."
"I don't care about bail," Julian spat, leaning across the table, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "Where are my children? Where is Elena?"
"Mrs. Vance surrendered herself voluntarily to the United States Attorney’s office three hours ago," the attorney replied. "Accompanied by Marcus Kane and federal protective custody details. All state warrants against her have been dismissed with prejudice."
"She belongs in a cell next to me!" Julian slammed his good hand onto the metal table. "She ambushed my motorcade on a public bridge! She detonated a tactical flashbang inside a vehicle with my children inside!"
The attorney sighed deeply, shaking his head with pity. "Julian, you aren't listening. Ethan, Lucas, and Oliver gave formal videotaped depositions to the FBI Child Protection Division an hour ago."
Julian went completely still. "What did they say?"
"Ethan testified that you systematically abused your parental authority, kept them confined against their will, and threatened to ship them to an offshore boarding facility to prevent them from testifying," the lawyer said, reading directly from the transcript notes. "Lucas corroborated every detail. And Oliver handed over an encrypted audio recording he made on his smart-watch during the bridge standoff."
Julian’s breath caught in his throat. "An audio recording?"
"The audio captures you threatening to shoot Elena through the heart," the attorney whispered. "It captures Ethan stepping in front of the gun. The prosecutor is adding attempted murder and felony child endangerment to the indictment. The grand jury will return a true bill by noon."
Julian leaned back, staring up at the flickering fluorescent tube on the ceiling. The cold concrete walls of the cell seemed to close in around him like a tomb.
"They betrayed me," Julian whispered, a strange, hollow madness creeping into his tone. "My own sons. My blood. I gave them everything. I gave them a kingdom."
May you like
"They didn't want a kingdom, Julian," the lawyer said quietly, standing up and tucking his briefcase under his arm. "They wanted a mother."
As the heavy steel cell door clanged shut, locking Julian into the gray abyss of federal custody, Elena Vance was walking into the federal magistrate's private chambers on the tenth floor of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse.
