My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 413

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Claining the Name

~Katia~

Julian and I watched the press conference from our own living room, the television volume low, both of us leaning forward on the couch as Gail stepped up to the podium set up in the estate’s front garden. I had my legs curled beneath me, a cup of tea going cold in my hands, unable to focus on anything except my sister-in-law’s face filling the screen.

“I am Catwoman,” she said, her voice calm despite the visible tension in her shoulders.

The room on screen erupted into noise, reporters shouting over one another, and beside me Julian went rigid, his hand finding mine and gripping it tightly enough that I understood exactly how much this had blindsided him too.

She had not told us. She had left the estate that morning claiming she needed air, and instead she had called a press conference herself, deciding, apparently alone, that the fastest way to end this was simply to give Tessa Sterling the confession she wanted,

true or not.

I did not know how to feel about it, watching her stand there on the screen, absorbing the full weight of an identity that was never actually hers, protecting me in a way I had never asked her to.

A reporter near the front pushed forward, phone raised.

“How long have you been racing,” she asked.

“Long enough,” Gail said, giving nothing further away.

“Will you be racing again?” another voice called out.

“That remains to be seen,” Gail said, and stepped back from the podium before anyone could press further, walking off through the side gate with the same composed pace she had walked in with, the reporters still shouting questions behind her that she never turned back to answer.

Julian turned off the television and sat in silence for a long moment, staring at the dark screen as though it might still offer some explanation neither of us had access to yet.

“She should have told us,” he said finally.

“She was trying to protect me,” I said. “I think she decided the fastest way to do that was to simply take the accusation herself before anyone had time to talk her out of it.”

“That does not make it right,” Julian said. “She just handed the entire city a lie about herself to protect a truth about you. If anything happens because of that, if Tessa digs deeper and finds something that contradicts what Gail just claimed, the fallout lands on her, not on either of us.”

“I know,” I said. “I have been sitting here thinking about exactly that since the moment she opened her mouth.”

Julian reached for his phone, already typing something, his jaw set with the sharp focus I recognized whenever he moved from worry into action.

“I am calling her,” he said.

The call went straight to voicemail. He tried twice more with the same result before finally setting the phone down, frustration visible in the tight line of his shoulders.

“She is avoiding everyone,” he said. “For now, at least.”

“Give her the evening,” I said. “She just did something enormous for us. She probably needs a few hours before she is ready to explain herself to anyone, even you”

julian did not look entirely convinced, but he let the phone rest, and i watched him told the worry down into something quieter, the way he always did when there was nothing left to act on immediately.

Caiming f

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Noal and Delia arrived for dinner that evening, an invitation Julian and I had extended days earlier, before any of thishad happened, and neither of us had found a good reason to cancel it once Gail’s press conference upended the entire week. Some part of me had actually hoped their company might offer a distraction from everything still unsettled about the day, though the topic proved impossible to avoid once we all sat down together.

We ate at the smaller table in the kitchen rather than the formal dining room, something Julian preferred when it was only the four of us, and the conversation eventually drifted, as it seemed destined to all evening, toward the headline still dominating every screen in the city.

“So Julian’s own sister is Catwoman,” Delia said, setting down her glass. “That must have been quite the surprise for you both.”

“It was,” Julian said carefully.

“I still cannot believe it,” Noah said, shaking his head. “Gail. Of all people. She always seemed so composed, so careful. I would never have guessed she was living an entire secret life underground.”

“People carry more than they show,” I said.

“Clearly,” Delia said, something almost amused in her voice now. “The whole city spent months trying to unmask her, and it turns out she was simply sitting at family dinners the entire time.”

“Do you think she will actually keep racing,” Noah asked, “now that everyone knows her face?”

“I doubt it,” Julian said. “Once an identity like that becomes public, it loses most of what made it useful in the first place. Anonymity was always the point.”

“It must be strange,” Delia said, “watching someone you have known your entire life turn out to have this whole other version of herself nobody suspected. Do you think there is more she has kept from the family?”

“I would not know,” Julian said, his tone even despite the question landing closer to the truth than Delia could possibly realize.” None of us fully know each other the way we assume we do, I suppose. Even within the same family.”

I decided the moment needed redirecting before the conversation went any further into territory that made me increasingly

uneasy.

“Julian,” I said, “how are you actually going to get proof about your parents’ car, whether it was truly tampered with?”

The table went quiet in a different way now, the earlier lightness replaced by something heavier.

“We reopen the case,” Julian said. “Officially. Marcus has already started the paperwork. It will take time; forensic evidence this old is never simple to reconstruct, but if there is anything left to find, we intend to find it.”

“That could not have been easy to decide,” I said.

“It was not,” Julian said. “But I would rather know the truth than keep living beside a question I have carried without answers for most of my life.”

Noah set his fork down, something thoughtful crossing his face.

“If you find what you are looking for,” he said quietly, “it changes everything about my own family too. I do not know if I am ready for whatever that answer turns out to be, honestly. But I understand why you cannot keep living without it.”

“I appreciate you saying that,” Julian said.

Delia said nothing, her eyes fixed on her plate, and I wondered how much of this conversation was landing somewhere she had not yet found the words to share with either of us.

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