Chapter 10 - The Truth Victor Had Been Running From
Victor looked twenty years older behind reinforced glass.
No expensive suit.
No silver tie.
No polished cuff links.
Just jail clothing and exhaustion.
I picked up the phone.
He did the same.
“You look like Evelyn.”
“I’ve heard.”
“She would be proud.”
“Don’t say her name.”
Victor looked down.
“I loved your mother.”
“You helped cover up her murder.”
“Yes.”
The immediate admission disarmed me.
“Did you order Ryan to kill her?”
“No.”
“You told him to scare her.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Steal her files. Frighten her. Make her believe someone had entered the lake house.”
“You thought terrorizing my mother was acceptable?”
“No.”
“You did it anyway.”
“Yes.”
At least he had stopped lying.
“Why?”
Victor leaned back.
“Because she discovered the fraud.”
“Your fraud.”
“Yes.”
“How much did you steal?”
“Thirty-nine million.”
“We found thirty-four.”
“You’ll find the rest.”
“You destroyed my family for thirty-nine million dollars?”
His eyes met mine.
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
“The money was never the original reason.”
I felt anger rising.
“Then stop speaking in riddles.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Carter Meridian was close to bankruptcy sixteen years ago.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Ask Thomas.”
“My father never—”
“Ask him.”
I stared through the glass.
Victor continued.
“Your father had expanded too quickly. A shipping acquisition went bad. Banks were preparing to call loans.”
“What does that have to do with stealing?”
“I created false vendor structures to move cash between subsidiaries and hide covenant violations.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re saying you committed fraud to save the company.”
“At first.”
“At first.”
“Yes.”
“And then you started stealing.”
“Yes.”
“How noble.”
“I am not asking for sympathy.”
“Good.”
“Your mother discovered it years later.”
“And you threatened her.”
“Yes.”
“Ryan killed her.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I told Ryan to take the documents from her SUV before she reached Thomas.”
“Why?”
“Because those documents proved enough to destroy me.”
“So he cut her brakes.”
“I did not know he would.”
“But afterward?”
“I knew.”
“And you paid him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep him quiet.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Then why did you continue helping him?”
“Because Ryan had the video.”
“What video?”
“The one you recovered.”
Of course.
Mutually assured destruction.
“You were afraid he’d expose you.”
“Yes.”
“So he controlled you.”
“Partly.”
“What was the rest?”
Victor stared at me.
“Ryan became worse.”
Silence.
“He enjoyed control. Your mother’s death changed something in him.”
“Did he ever plan to kill me?”
Victor looked away.
“Answer.”
“I suspected he might.”
“When?”
“During your pregnancy.”
“And you did nothing.”
“I tried.”
I laughed bitterly.
“By doing what?”
“I changed the trust structure.”
“You couldn’t.”
“I tried to resign.”
My anger paused.
Rebecca had told me the trustee could petition for replacement.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Ryan threatened to send the parking-garage video to federal authorities.”
“You deserved that.”
“Yes.”
“Then you chose yourself.”
“Yes.”
Finally.
The truth.
Ugly.
Simple.
Human.
Victor had not been a hidden protector.
He had been a coward.
A criminal whose attempts to contain one crime created another.
“What were you doing near the hospital?”
“I wasn’t.”
“There were clippings.”
“I was tracking Ryan’s attorney.”
“What?”
Victor leaned forward.
“Ryan still had one document I needed.”
“What document?”
“Evelyn’s second will.”
My heart stopped.
“She had one will.”
“No.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I witnessed the second.”
I stared at him.
“What changed?”
“She removed me as future trustee.”
My pulse accelerated.
“When?”
“The morning she died.”
“Where is it?”
“Ryan took it from her car.”
I understood.
If that will existed, Victor never had lawful authority over Grace’s trust.
Everything changed.
“Why did Ryan keep it?”
“Leverage.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said his attorney had something.”
“I believe Ryan gave him documents before his arrest.”
I stood.
“Megan.”
I stopped.
Victor pressed the phone closer.
“There is one more thing about your mother’s crash.”
I slowly sat.
“What?”
“Ryan wasn’t alone.”
My blood turned cold.
“Who?”
“I never saw the person.”
“Then how do you know?”
“The brake line required access beneath the vehicle.”
“So?”
“Ryan called me from the scene.”
“When?”
“The night before.”
“What did he say?”
Victor swallowed.
“He said, ‘We’re done.’”
“We?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hear anyone?”
“A woman.”
My skin prickled.
“Jessica?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“I knew Jessica’s voice.”
“Then who?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor leaned closer.
“But Evelyn knew her.”
The investigation shifted again.
A woman.
Someone my mother knew.
Someone with Ryan the night her brakes were cut.
Then Rebecca found the second will.
Ryan’s criminal attorney surrendered a sealed envelope after prosecutors threatened a search warrant.
Inside was Mom’s revised testament.
Victor removed as trustee.
Rebecca named instead.
And one handwritten codicil.
If anything happened to Evelyn before she could speak with me, Rebecca was instructed to give me a letter.
Rebecca stared at the page.
“I never received a letter.”
Dad whispered:
“Maybe Evelyn never wrote it.”
She had.
Police found it two days later.
Not in Ryan’s possession.
Not at the lake house.
Inside Caroline Carter’s safety-deposit box.
May you like
My cousin.
The woman Ryan had originally been sent to seduce.
