Clara clutched the heavy collar of her woolen coat, her breath coming in ragged gasps in the damp air[span_63](start_span)[span_63](end_span).
Clara: What were you going to do with her, Julian? Tell me the truth. Were you going to leave her down here to starve[span_64](start_span)[span_64](end_span)?
Julian: I’m not a murderer, Mother. Give me some credit[span_65](start_span)[span_65](end_span).
Clara: Then what was the plan? You were flying to Switzerland tonight[span_66](start_span)[span_66](end_span)!
Julian: Doctor Vance arranged a private transfer. A quiet residential boarding facility in the mountains outside Guadalajara[span_67](start_span)[span_67](end_span).
Clara: Doctor Vance? The family pediatrician who signed the autopsy waiver[span_68](start_span)[span_68](end_span)?
Julian: Vance was drowning in medical malpractice lawsuits and gambling debts. Half a million dollars cash bought his total loyalty[span_69](start_span)[span_69](end_span).
Clara: You paid a doctor to declare a living child dead? To issue a fraudulent county burial permit[span_70](start_span)[span_70](end_span)?
Julian: Vance administered a clinical pediatric sedative that mimicked severe respiratory failure for four hours[span_71](start_span)[span_71](end_span). By the time the hospital morgue processed the intake, the private transport van was already at the loading dock[span_72](start_span)[span_72](end_span).
Lily: Daddy, the doctor gave me a bad shot in my arm. It made my chest hurt[span_73](start_span)[span_73](end_span).
Lily pulled back the sleeve of her thin paper gown, revealing a purple hematoma swelling over her inner elbow[span_74](start_span)[span_74](end_span).
Clara felt a wave of cold nausea wash through her veins as she saw the needle mark[span_75](start_span)[span_75](end_span).
Clara: You drugged your own baby daughter with black-market paralytics[span_76](start_span)[span_76](end_span)?
Julian: It was calculated down to the milligram! Vance is a licensed physician! He guaranteed there would be no permanent neurological damage[span_77](start_span)[span_77](end_span)!
Clara: She could have gone into cardiac arrest! She could have suffocated in the back of that van[span_78](start_span)[span_78](end_span)!
Julian: But she didn't! She’s right here! Stop making a scene out of a clean financial transaction[span_79](start_span)[span_79](end_span)!
Clara: A transaction? You turned your daughter’s life into a corporate tax write-off[span_80](start_span)[span_80](end_span)!
Julian: I have a private jet waiting at Westchester County Airport. Wheels up at three in the morning[span_81](start_span)[span_81](end_span).
Clara: And where was Lily going[span_82](start_span)[span_82](end_span)?
Julian: She was scheduled to be picked up by Vance’s transport team in an unmarked medical van at midnight[span_83](start_span)[span_83](end_span). A new identity, a private estate, all expenses paid for the rest of her life[span_84](start_span)[span_84](end_span).
Clara: In a foreign country, isolated behind barbed wire, told that her family abandoned her[span_85](start_span)[span_85](end_span)?
Julian: She would have lived like royalty! Far better than whatever miserable retirement village you're rotting in[span_86](start_span)[span_86](end_span)!
Clara: You are sick, Julian. You are completely devoid of any human empathy[span_87](start_span)[span_87](end_span).
Julian reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick envelope bound with red rubber bands[span_88](start_span)[span_88](end_span).
Julian: Here is three hundred thousand dollars in cash bearer bonds. Take it[span_89](start_span)[span_89](end_span).
Clara: What is that[span_90](start_span)[span_90](end_span)?
Julian: Your retirement fund, Mother. Walk out of here right now. Drive back to your little cottage in New Jersey. Forget you saw Lily[span_91](start_span)[span_91](end_span).
Clara: You think you can buy my complicity? You think a mother sells her soul for paper[span_92](start_span)[span_92](end_span)?
Julian: If you don't take the envelope, you leave me with no options. Do you realize what kind of men financed my bridge loans[span_93](start_span)[span_93](end_span)?
Clara: I don't care about your loans! I care about justice for this child[span_94](start_span)[span_94](end_span)!
Julian: If the trust lawyers discover this fraud, the federal government will freeze every asset under RICO statutes. I will spend forty years in ADX Florence[span_95](start_span)[span_95](end_span)!
Clara: Which is exactly where you belong[span_96](start_span)[span_96](end_span)!
Julian’s jaw tightened, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the heavy iron flashlight from his pocket[span_97](start_span)[span_97](end_span).
Julian: I offered you an easy way out, Mother. You should have taken the cash[span_98](start_span)[span_98](end_span).