Chapter 8 - The Dawn Contract
By 6:00 a.m., the first gray light of dawn began to seep through the tall windows of my home office, illuminating the quiet room.
Sitting across from me was my lead divorce attorney, Marcus Vance, whom I had summoned from Manhattan at four in the morning.
Marcus was a ruthless fifty-year-old veteran of high-net-worth matrimonial litigation who specialized in destroying arrogant corporate men.
He laid out three sets of heavy legal documents on my desk, flipping to the signature pages marked with pink sticky notes.
Julian sat in the armchair across from us, wearing a borrowed tracksuit, his face pale and sunken as he stared at the papers.
“This is an emergency post-nuptial agreement and an immediate custody transfer, Julian,” Marcus explained with icy professional precision.
“You will assign one hundred percent of your personal stock in Sterling Holdings over to Sarah’s private holding trust.”
“You will grant her sole legal and physical custody of your daughter, Lily, with zero visitation rights without a court-appointed supervisor.”
“And in exchange, Sarah will withhold transmission of the Cleveland safety logs to the Department of Justice for seventy-two hours.”
Julian looked up from the papers, his eyes wild with desperation as he grabbed his pen with shaking fingers.
“Seventy-two hours?!” Julian stammered. “That’s barely enough time for my father to secure an international legal team!”
“Your father isn't getting an international legal team, Julian,” I interjected, leaning forward over the polished desk surface.
“Your father is going to stand in front of a federal grand jury in Hartford on Thursday morning.”
“And you are going to sign these papers right now, or Marcus will hit 'send' on this email to the United States Attorney’s Office.”
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Julian looked at the pen, then at the glowing laptop screen displaying the draft indictment email addressed to federal prosecutors.
He let out a ragged, trembling breath, pressed the pen onto the crisp white paper, and signed his full legal name on every single line.
