CHAP 12 — VICTORIA’S HALF-TRUTH
Victoria requested a meeting.
No lawyers.
No cameras.
Nathan refused.
Margaret accepted.
They met in an empty restaurant Nathan owned downtown.
Victoria arrived alone.
She looked different without Whitmore House around her.
Smaller.
But not harmless.
“You wanted me afraid,” Margaret said.
Victoria sat.
“I wanted you uncertain.”
“Why?”
“Because uncertain people don’t claim empires.”
Nathan watched silently.
Victoria looked at him.
“Dominic recruited me before I met you.”
Nathan’s face showed nothing.
“He knew about the Ellis covenant.”
“How?”
“Malcolm.”
Of course.
Victoria continued.
“My job was to get access to Eleanor’s records.”
“And marry me?”
“That was optional.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“You seemed enthusiastic.”
“For four billion dollars, I could be enthusiastic about almost anything.”
Margaret stared at her.
“And the staff?”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“They were leverage.”
“Ruth is seventy.”
“She was close to you.”
“So you stole from her?”
“I needed everyone around you to feel unstable.”
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“You enjoyed it.”
Victoria went silent.
That was confession enough.
Nathan leaned forward.
“Why are you here?”
“Because Dominic will kill me if he wins.”
“Why?”
“I kept copies.”
She placed a flash drive on the table.
“Everything.”
Nathan didn’t touch it.
“Price?”
“Immunity.”
“You’re overestimating my power.”
“Protection, then.”
Margaret looked at the drive.
“Is Malcolm on it?”
“Yes.”
“Dominic?”
“Yes.”
“Thomas Ellis?”
Victoria hesitated.
Nathan noticed.
“What about him?”
“Dominic found something six months ago.”
“What?”
“A second burial site near Lake Norman.”
Margaret froze.
Victoria continued.
“He believes Vincent moved Thomas’s body after killing him.”
Nathan’s eyes hardened.
“And Dominic kept that from her.”
“He needed the Ellis claim unresolved.”
“Why?”
“Because once Thomas is legally confirmed dead and coercion is proven, Margaret’s ownership activates.”
Victoria smiled bitterly.
“Dominic doesn’t want to destroy the Ellis claim.”
She looked at Margaret.
“He wants to marry it.”
Silence.
Margaret stared.
Nathan’s expression went cold.
Victoria explained.
“Dominic intended to force you into a settlement. Marriage, voting agreement, partnership—whatever gave him control.”
Margaret’s disgust was immediate.
Victoria slid the drive forward.
“But he made one mistake.”
“What?”
“He trusted me.”
Nathan finally picked up the drive.
Victoria smiled.
“You’re welcome.”
“No.”
Nathan stood.
“You don’t get gratitude for helping put out a fire you started.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“You need me.”
“I need evidence.”
He held up the drive.
“You are only the container it arrived in.”
For the first time, Victoria looked wounded.
Nathan didn’t care.
As he and Margaret left, Victoria called after them.
“Nathan.”
He stopped.
She touched the bare finger where his engagement ring had been.
“You really loved me?”
Nathan considered the question.
“I loved who you performed.”
Then he walked away.
Outside, Margaret asked:
“Do you believe her?”
“About Dominic?”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked toward the city.
“I believe ambitious people often tell the truth when a larger ambition becomes inconvenient.”
His phone rang.
Samuel.
The board vote had been rescheduled.
May you like
Forty-eight hours.
And this time Dominic had enough signatures to force it.
