Chapter 14 - THE YEAR JULIAN COULD NOT REMEMBER
There were seven months of Julian's twentieth year he barely remembered.
Not because of trauma.
Not because of drugs.
Because nothing memorable had happened.
Or so he had always believed.
He attended university.
He studied finance.
He rowed crew.
He dated briefly.
He spent weekends at his father's office learning the company.
Normal life.
But when Bishop asked for specifics, gaps appeared.
"March?"
"School."
"April?"
"School."
"May?"
"Finals."
"June?"
Julian hesitated.
"I worked for Dad."
"Doing what?"
"I don't remember."
Sienna sat nearby.
Her face was strange.
"What?"
Julian asked.
She swallowed.
"You didn't work for Dad that summer."
He stared at her.
"Yes, I did."
"No."
"Sienna."
"You disappeared."
Silence.
Clara looked between them.
"What do you mean disappeared?"
Sienna answered slowly.
"Julian left after an argument with Dad."
"For how long?"
"Almost two months."
Julian laughed.
"That's ridiculous."
Sienna shook her head.
"You came back different."
He stared at her.
"What argument?"
"You found something in Dad's office."
Julian's pulse quickened.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't I remember this?"
"I assumed you did."
Julian stood.
Fragments moved at the edge of memory.
His father's office.
Rain against windows.
A red folder.
Someone shouting.
Not enough.
Clara touched his arm.
"Julian?"
He pulled away instinctively.
"I need air."
He walked outside.
Snow had begun falling lightly.
He stood on the terrace.
Clara followed but kept distance.
After several minutes Julian said, "There was a clinic."
She froze.
"What?"
"I remember a clinic."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
He closed his eyes.
White walls.
A woman in a blue coat.
His father's voice.
Sleep.
Julian opened his eyes.
"I remember Dad telling me I had been sick."
Clara's face changed.
"Sick how?"
"He said exhaustion."
"Did you go to a hospital?"
"I must have."
Bishop joined them.
"We can check records."
They did.
There were no hospital records.
No insurance claims.
No university medical leave.
Nothing.
But Marcus found something else.
Charles Hayes's personal financial records showed a payment of $480,000 during the missing period.
Recipient:
AURORA NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE.
Bishop searched the name.
"It doesn't exist."
Clara frowned.
"Maybe it did then."
"No registration."
Julian remembered the woman in blue.
"Find properties."
Marcus searched corporate records.
Aurora Neurological Institute had no incorporation.
No tax ID.
No building.
But the wire transfer destination existed.
A numbered account in Switzerland.
The account holder's name appeared in one archived banking disclosure.
Dr. Samuel Crane.
Clara searched the name.
Her face went pale.
"What?"
Julian asked.
She turned the screen.
An old academic article appeared.
Samuel Crane.
Neurologist.
Specialist in memory reconsolidation.
Disappeared seventeen years ago.
Julian stared at the man's photograph.
Older.
Thin face.
Wire glasses.
A memory struck him so violently he grabbed the railing.
The clinic.
A chair.
Dr. Crane leaning over him.
A needle.
His father shouting from another room.
Julian whispered, "He did something to me."
Clara stepped closer.
"What?"
"I don't know."
Then he remembered one sentence.
Not his father's voice.
Crane's.
When you wake up, you will believe the decision was yours.
Julian turned toward the mansion.
Behind the glass doors, Eleanor stood watching.
May you like
And for the first time, he wondered whether his family had been protecting him from Clara.
Or protecting themselves from what Julian had once known.
