Chapter 5 - THE COUSIN’S DEMAND
I backed away until my legs hit the side of the bed. I kept one hand gripping Adrian’s, the other pressed hard against the key beneath my shirt.
“Get away from me,” I said. My voice shook, but I said it anyway.
Victoria didn’t stop. She pulled her handbag open and reached inside. “Don’t be difficult, child. Give me the key. No one needs to get hurt.”
“Who sent you?” I demanded. “Vanessa? Is she the one?”
Victoria laughed—a short, sharp, unpleasant sound. “Vanessa? Please. She’s nothing more than a convenient distraction. A tool. She doesn’t have the intelligence to orchestrate any of this.”
She stopped beside the bed. She looked down at Adrian, her expression cold and utterly unfeeling.
“Your father made a foolish mistake,” she said calmly. “He trusted the wrong people. Just like your mother did. Elena never understood that blood isn’t family. Loyalty isn’t love. And some secrets… are better left buried.”
“Secrets about what?” I whispered.
Victoria’s eyes flicked to the door. Then back to me. She leaned forward slightly.
“Your mother didn’t just discover she was being poisoned, Mia. She discovered something far more dangerous. Something that goes far beyond one dead woman or one greedy stepmother. Something that reaches into the highest levels of business, government, law enforcement… everywhere. And she realized she couldn’t trust anyone. Not even her own husband.”
My breath caught. “Not… not Daddy?”
Victoria smiled thinly. “Think about it. Who stood to gain the most from Elena’s death? Who inherited everything? Who married Vanessa barely a year later?”
“Adrian didn’t kill her!” I cried.
“Did he?” Victoria took another step closer. “Or did he simply look the other way? Accept the money, the power, the status… in exchange for his silence? Elena suspected him. That’s why she hid the papers. That’s why she sent Julian away. She didn’t know who she could trust. Not even him.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Is it?” Victoria reached out suddenly. Her hand shot toward my neck.
I ducked. Her fingers brushed my skin. I scrambled around the foot of the bed, putting Adrian’s body between us.
“Get out!” I screamed. “Guards! Julian! Help!”
Victoria lunged. She grabbed my arm. Her grip was like iron. She yanked me toward her, her other hand reaching for the chain around my neck.
“Give it to me!” she hissed. “You have no idea what forces you’re playing with!”
I kicked her as hard as I could. She grunted but didn’t let go. Her fingers closed around the chain. It cut into my neck. I screamed again—louder this time.
The door flew open.
Julian burst into the room, followed closely by Marcus and the two police officers. Julian took in the scene in a heartbeat—Victoria holding me, her hands at my throat, the chain stretched tight between us.
His face turned dark with rage.
He crossed the room in three strides and seized Victoria by the wrist. With a sharp, sickening crack, he twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her face-first against the wall.
Victoria cried out in pain.
“Who are you?” Julian snarled into her ear. “Who sent you here?”
“Let me go!” Victoria struggled, but Julian held her effortlessly. “I have every right to be here! I’m family!”
“You’re a trespasser,” Julian said. He signaled to the officers. “Take her. Check her identification. Search her.”
The officers moved in. They pulled Victoria away from the wall and handcuffed her. She spat curses at them, at Julian, at me. But as they led her past me, she stopped. She looked me dead in the eye.
“Think about what I said, Mia!” she called out, loud and clear. “Look at the dates! Look at the will! And ask yourself why your father really married Vanessa! The truth is right there in Elena’s papers! If you dare to open them!”
They dragged her out. The door slammed shut.
I stood trembling, clutching my neck where the chain had bitten into my skin. Julian rushed over to me. He knelt down, examining my neck with gentle, terrified hands.
“Did she hurt you? Did she get the key?”
I shook my head. I lifted the chain from beneath my shirt. The key was still there. Scratched, but safe.
Julian let out a long, shaky breath. He pulled me into a fierce embrace. “Thank God. Thank God you’re all right.”
“Who was she?” I asked, my voice muffled against his shoulder.
Julian pulled back. He exchanged a grave look with Marcus.
“She gave her name as Victoria Voss,” Marcus said quietly. “She listed herself as Elena’s cousin on the visitor log. But… Elena never had a cousin named Victoria Voss. I checked the family records years ago.”
“Then she lied,” I said.
“From the moment she stepped into this room,” Julian said. He stood up and walked to the window, staring out at the parking lot below. “And she knew things. Things only someone very close to Elena could possibly know.”
He turned back to me.
“She said something to you before they took her away. About dates. About the will. About asking why Adrian married Vanessa. What did she mean?”
I repeated Victoria’s words exactly. When I finished, Julian’s expression had darkened to something truly frightening. He walked over to Marcus.
“Pull Elena’s file,” he said quietly. “Every document. Every date. Every clause. Compare it with everything Adrian has told us. And find out exactly when he and Vanessa first met.”
“Julian,” Marcus said carefully. “You’re not suggesting—”
“I’m suggesting that Victoria knew things she had no business knowing unless someone very close to Elena told her. Someone who had access to private legal documents. Someone who stands to lose everything if Elena’s will is fully executed.” Julian looked at me. “And if what Victoria implied is true… then the betrayal goes deeper than any of us ever imagined.”
He walked over and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“Mia… from this moment on, you do not speak to anyone. Not doctors. Not police. Not family. Not friends. No one. Not even me or Marcus unless we are in a locked room with no one else listening. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “You think… you think it could be Daddy?”
Julian hesitated. “I don’t know what to think. But Victoria was certain. And she was desperate. Which means… whatever Elena discovered… it’s worse than we imagined. And the people who killed her… are still very powerful. And they will do absolutely anything to keep those papers hidden.”
He glanced at the bed, at Adrian’s still form.
“Even if that means silencing anyone who stands in their way.”
I looked from Julian to Adrian, then down at the key resting against my chest. Victoria’s words echoed in my mind: Not even him.
I gripped the key tightly.
If Adrian was innocent… then why had that woman been so certain he wasn’t? And why had she known exactly what to say to make me doubt him?
Outside the room, down the hall, a phone began to ring. Somewhere, someone was waiting for news. Waiting to know if they had succeeded. Waiting to know if the key was now in their hands.
And as I looked at my father’s pale, still face, I realized with a sinking heart: I didn’t know who to trust anymore.
Not Julian. Not Marcus. Not even the man lying unconscious before me.
My mother had trusted no one. That was why she had hidden the truth. That was why she had given the key to me.
And suddenly, I understood. Elena hadn’t chosen me because I was her daughter. She had chosen me because she knew… I was the only one she could absolutely guarantee would never be bought. Never be intimidated. And never be silenced.
I touched the key one last time.
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Whatever lay at the end of this journey… whatever terrible truth my mother had discovered… I was going to find it.
Even if it meant discovering that the man I loved most in the world… might have been involved in her death.
