Chapter 4 - THE CONFRONTATION AT THE JAIL
The next morning, I drove to the county jail to visit Victoria. She sat across from me behind thick glass, wearing a plain orange jumpsuit, her hair pulled back roughly, her eyes red-rimmed and angry. She didn't speak until the guard stepped away.
"You bailed me out yet?" she asked sharply. "My lawyer says this whole mess can be swept away if you just drop the charges. We can go back to how things were. Pretend it never happened."
"There is no going back, Victoria," I said. "Not ever."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Is this because of her? The housekeeper and that little liar? Nathan, they are manipulating you! Can’t you see that?"
"Stop," I said. "Just stop. I know about Arthur. I know he is your uncle. I know he introduced us so he could control the fortune through you. I know he told you to get rid of Grace and Lily because a child outside our marriage ruins everything he has planned."
Victoria went perfectly still. Her face drained of color. For a long moment she said nothing at all. Then she leaned forward, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"How much do you actually know?"
"I know Arthur is behind this. I know he has been pulling your strings from the very beginning. And I know he will discard you the moment you become inconvenient. Just like he planned to discard Grace and Lily."
Victoria sat back. A strange, defeated look crossed her face.
"He is my family, Nathan. He raised me. He took me in when my parents died. I owed him everything. And he told me… he told me that if you ever found out about the child, we had to make certain she never spoke to anyone again. He said the fortune could not pass to someone not of Sterling blood."
"He told you to kill them?"
"He told me to make certain they were no longer a problem," she said evasively. "I thought… I thought I could just frighten her. Make her leave. Take the child and disappear. But when you came home early… everything went wrong."
"And Arthur?" I pressed. "Does he know you failed?"
Victoria hesitated. Fear flickered in her eyes.
"He sent a message last night. Through my lawyer. He said… he said not to worry. That the charges would disappear. That he had a way to make Grace recant. And that once you were alone again… things would be handled permanently."
My blood turned cold.
"He is going to hurt Grace. Or Lily."
"He is going to make it look like an accident," Victoria whispered. "And then he will convince you to remarry. Or have you declared unfit. And he will control everything. He told me you are too soft. Too sentimental. That he has waited thirty years to take what he believes belongs to him."
I stood up slowly.
"Why are you telling me this now? Why turn against him?"
Victoria looked at me. Tears spilled down her face. Real tears this time.
"Because Arthur abandoned me. He told my lawyer I am on my own. That I have become a liability. He never cared about me, Nathan. Not really. He only cared about the money. And now… now he is going to destroy everything to get it."
"Give me proof," I said. "Letters. Messages. Anything that ties him to what happened."
Victoria reached beneath the glass partition and pressed a folded scrap of paper into the guard’s slot.
"He keeps records," she whispered. "Everything is written down. Dates. Payments. Instructions. He keeps a second ledger. Not the one your father hid. His own. It is in his safe at his office. Key combination is his daughter’s birthday—0417. Go there before he destroys it. And Nathan…"
She paused, looking me dead in the eye.
"Be careful. Arthur does not leave loose ends. If he thinks you are coming… he will be ready."
May you like
I took the paper. Folded small. The address of Sterling Enterprises. The combination. And a single sentence scrawled beneath in Victoria’s handwriting: He has men watching your house.
---
