CHAPTER 9 â The Suicide Letter I Never Wrote
The room fell deathly silent.
I stared at the printed email, unable to look away.
At the bottom of the page...
was my name.
Victoria Sterling Ashford.
Typed as though I had written every word myself.
My hands trembled as I read the first lines.
To everyone I have hurt...
My chest tightened.
I can no longer live with the shame I've brought upon my husband.
I looked up.
Nathan refused to meet my eyes.
The letter continued.
Nathan loved me more than I deserved.
Everything that happened was my fault.
Please don't blame anyone for my decision.
Every sentence had been written to accomplish one thing.
Erase the truth.
Protect Nathan.
Condemn me.
I folded the pages slowly.
Then looked directly at him.
"You planned my funeral..."
"...before I was even dead."
Nathan's lips parted.
"Victoria..."
"No."
"I can explain."
I laughed.
The sound echoed through the mansion.
Not with joy.
With disbelief.
"For four years..."
"I thought I married a businessman."
"It turns out..."
"I married a man who prepared my obituary."
Detective Laura Bennett accepted the document from my hands.
She read it carefully.
Then turned to the forensic examiner.
"The metadata?"
The examiner nodded.
"We recovered the original file."
"It was created nineteen days ago."
"Modified eleven times."
"Scheduled for automatic delivery at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow."
Nathan closed his eyes.
The detective continued.
"Who had access to the file?"
The examiner answered immediately.
"Only Nathan Ashford."
"No evidence of outside editing."
"No remote access."
"No forged login."
She nodded once.
"Chain of custody is clean."
Nathan whispered,
"I wasn't going to send it."
The examiner looked at him.
"You already had."
Nathan frowned.
"What?"
"The email server confirms it."
"It was scheduled to send automatically if your laptop remained active."
His voice grew smaller.
"I..."
He had no answer.
Celeste suddenly stepped forward.
"I've never seen that letter."
Detective Bennett looked at her.
"You're saying you knew nothing about it?"
"I didn't."
She paused.
"I knew he was controlling."
"I knew he was dangerous."
"But this..."
She looked at Nathan in horror.
"...I didn't know."
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"So now you're innocent?"
She glared at him.
"No."
"I'm guilty of greed."
She looked toward me.
"Not murder."
Another forensic investigator entered carrying a laptop.
"Detective."
"We recovered additional deleted files."
"What kind?"
"Drafts."
He connected the computer to the monitor.
One after another...
different versions of the suicide letter appeared.
Version One.
Version Two.
Version Five.
Version Nine.
Each revision became more convincing.
More emotional.
More believable.
Nathan had spent weeks perfecting a letter that would convince the world I had taken my own life.
The detective looked at him.
"You revised this eleven times."
Nathan remained silent.
"You changed the wording."
"You added personal memories."
"You included family details."
"So investigators would believe it."
Nathan whispered,
"I panicked."
Detective Bennett shook her head.
"People panic."
"They don't spend three weeks editing someone else's farewell letter."
My father walked slowly toward the fireplace.
The flames reflected in his eyes.
"When Victoria was eight years old..."
he said quietly,
"she asked me a question."
No one interrupted.
"She asked..."
'How do you know if someone truly loves you?'"
He smiled faintly at the memory.
"I told her..."
'The people who love you will protect your future.'
'The people who use you will protect themselves.'
He turned toward Nathan.
"You've spent four years protecting only one person."
Nathan lowered his head.
"Himself."
Just then, one of the officers approached my father.
"Sir."
"The cybercrime division found another scheduled file."
"What file?"
"It wasn't on Mr. Ashford's laptop."
"It was stored in cloud backup."
The officer handed over a tablet.
At the top of the screen appeared a folder labeled:
Emergency Crisis Plan
Inside were several documents.
Media Statement
Press Conference Draft
Investor Letter
Funeral Arrangements
Nathan stared in disbelief.
"They recovered that too?"
The officer ignored him.
Detective Bennett opened the media statement.
She began reading aloud.
Ashford Global mourns the tragic passing of Mrs. Victoria Ashford following a long struggle with severe depression...
She stopped.
Looked at Nathan.
"Interesting."
Nathan remained silent.
The detective continued.
"This statement was written..."
"...sixteen days ago."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Mrs. Ashford was still alive."
The room fell silent.
I suddenly remembered something.
Sixteen days earlier...
Nathan had insisted we take professional family photographs.
He had chosen my dress.
My jewelry.
Even my hairstyle.
At the time...
he said investors wanted to see a "stable family image."
Now...
I understood.
He wasn't creating family memories.
He was gathering photographs for a memorial.
A memorial he expected to need very soon.
Nathan slowly sank into a chair.
His hands covered his face.
Everything he had prepared in secret...
was now displayed on giant screens around the room.
There was no escape.
No explanation.
No excuse.
The front doors opened once more.
Another investigator entered carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
"Detective."
"We've completed the financial tracing."
"And?"
The investigator looked toward me.
"Mrs. Sterling..."
"We located the final transfer."
I frowned.
"What transfer?"
"The one Mr. Ashford initiated..."
"...exactly thirty minutes before you called your father."
Nathan's head snapped up.
"No..."
The investigator placed the document on the table.
Transfer Amount:
$487,000,000.
Destination:
An account in the Cayman Islands.
Beneficiary:
Not Celeste.
Not Ashford Global.
Not Nathan.
The detective frowned.
"Who owns this account?"
The investigator looked toward my father.
His expression had completely changed.
"It's registered..."
"...under someone none of us expected."
My father slowly took the document.
As he read the name...
his calm expression disappeared for the first time that night.
He looked directly at me.
"Victoria..."
His voice was lower than a whisper.
May you like
"I think..."
"...we've just discovered who has really been controlling Nathan all along."
