Chapter 5 - Victoria’s Offer
Victoria walked into Matthew Keene’s house as if she owned it.
Perhaps, in her mind, she did.
Daniel followed her.
He looked furious.
“Rachel, leave.”
I stared at him.
“You brought her here.”
“No. She brought me.”
Victoria removed her gloves.
“I’m tired of everyone behaving like children.”
Nathan stepped between her and me.
“Your granddaughter was hospitalized for malnutrition.”
Victoria’s eyes barely moved toward him.
“An unfortunate misunderstanding.”
I laughed.
She looked at me.
“There is nothing amusing about this.”
“You’re right.”
I stepped closer.
“There isn’t.”
For the first time, Victoria studied me differently.
Not as Daniel’s wife.
As an opponent.
“Rachel, you’ve stumbled into matters that existed long before you entered this family.”
“My daughter existed before your plans for her money.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What did you do to Emma’s trust?”
Victoria sighed.
“You are still asking the wrong questions.”
“Answer me.”
“You spent six years enjoying the life this family built. Do not pretend moral superiority because you’ve discovered how families like ours survive.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You forged a paternity test.”
“I corrected a problem.”
“You made me believe my daughter wasn’t mine.”
“You were already suspicious.”
Daniel flinched.
Victoria had chosen the weakest point and pressed.
I saw something then.
She had controlled him his entire life the same way.
Not by inventing fear.
By finding the fear already inside him.
She turned to me.
“Your marriage can survive this.”
“No.”
“Emma can recover.”
I stared at her.
“Recover?”
“She missed several meals.”
Nathan stepped forward.
I touched his arm.
I wanted to hear Victoria speak.
People like her were dangerous when interrupted.
Useful when confident.
“You can have full custody,” she said.
Daniel jerked his head toward her.
“Mother.”
“Be quiet.”
Then she looked at me.
“Daniel will agree to divorce terms favorable to you. Your company remains yours. Your daughter’s trust will be restored.”
“In exchange for what?”
Matthew answered before she could.
“The drive.”
Victoria’s expression tightened.
I smiled.
“So that’s why you came.”
“You have no idea what is on it.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You know about Richard. Julia. Serena. Christopher.”
She paused.
“You don’t know about your father.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“My father?”
“Thomas Monroe.”
I felt Nathan stiffen beside me.
Victoria smiled faintly.
“Now I have your attention.”
My father had died three years earlier after a stroke.
He had hated Daniel at first.
Then, strangely, had changed.
He approved the marriage.
Helped Daniel enter Monroe Industrial.
Trusted him with company access.
I had never understood the transformation.
“What about him?”
“Thomas knew Richard.”
“Everyone in Boston finance knew Richard.”
“They knew each other much better than you think.”
Nathan said:
“Don’t listen to her.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Your father was paying Julia Hale for seventeen years.”
I stared.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
She gave me a bank account number.
The last four digits were familiar.
My father’s private investment account.
“Why?”
“Give me the drive.”
“No.”
“And you’ll never know.”
Matthew laughed.
Victoria turned.
“You find this entertaining?”
“I find it predictable.”
He walked toward a bookshelf.
“You always thought secrets were currency.”
He removed a small digital recorder.
“I stopped believing that twenty years ago.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Matthew pressed play.
My father’s voice filled the room.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakable.
If Victoria ever finds out Rachel is connected to Julia, she will go after the child.
I stopped breathing.
Nathan whispered:
“What?”
The recording continued.
Rachel can never know until Victoria is gone.
I looked at Matthew.
“Connected how?”
Victoria moved suddenly.
Nathan blocked her.
Matthew held up one hand.
“Thomas Monroe wasn’t paying Julia because of Richard.”
He looked at me.
“He was paying her because she was your mother’s sister.”
My entire body went numb.
My mother had died when I was eight.
Her name was Ellen.
She had never mentioned a sister.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Matthew turned the laptop toward me.
A birth certificate.
Julia Mercer.
Ellen Mercer.
Same mother.
Same father.
My mother and Julia had been sisters.
Which meant Serena had been my cousin.
Ava—
I looked toward Victoria.
Ava was my blood relative too.
Closer to me than to Daniel.
Victoria knew.
That was why she had reacted so violently when I married into the Hale family.
Not because I was an outsider.
Because I was connected to the woman she had erased.
Matthew spoke quietly.
“Your father knew what Victoria had done to Julia.”
“Why didn’t he expose her?”
“Because she threatened your mother.”
Nathan’s face had gone white.
“Our mother?”
“Yes.”
“And after she died?”
“He began collecting evidence.”
I looked at the drive.
“Did my father give Christopher the information?”
Matthew nodded.
“They were working together.”
The room spun.
My father.
Christopher.
Serena.
Three dead people.
All connected by one woman.
Victoria looked at me.
“You wanted the truth.”
Her voice was almost gentle.
“Now you have enough of it to understand why you should walk away.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
She smiled sadly.
“Your father said the same thing.”
Then Daniel spoke.
“What happened to Thomas?”
Victoria turned toward him.
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“What did you do?”
Victoria did not answer.
May you like
And in that silence, my husband finally understood.
My father’s stroke might not have been natural.
