Chapter 9: The Concrete Reality
Two months later, the corporate scandal surrounding Vance-Sterling Media reached its inevitable conclusion.
I didn't attend the federal plea hearing in downtown Seattle, but I read the transcript sent to me by Marcus, who had been unanimously appointed by the board as the new CEO while I retained my position as controlling chair of the trust.
Julian had been left with no choice but to accept a plea bargain from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The evidence Evelyn had systematically compiled and stored in the Fifth Avenue vault—the forged payroll tax transfers, the offshore routing numbers, and the fraudulent board resolutions—was bulletproof.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of federal tax fraud and one count of wire fraud.
Because he had no remaining assets to offer for restitution, the judge showed no leniency. Julian was sentenced to forty-eight months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Oregon, followed by three years of supervised parole and a permanent bar from serving as an officer or director of any public corporation.
On the day he surrendered to federal marshals, Audrey sent me a single, bitter text message: I hope you're happy. You destroyed this family.
May you like
I looked at the message, deleted it, and blocked her number permanently.
I hadn't destroyed a family. I had simply stopped protecting a parasite from the consequences of his own appetite. The family—the real family—had been just two women: an aging mother who refused to let her son's greed go unpunished, and the daughter-in-law who stayed by her side until the very end.
