Chapter 4: The Son Who Finally Stood Up
Emily held the phone in both hands.
“You knew about this account?”
Victoria picked up her handbag.
“This conversation is over.”
Daniel blocked the doorway.
“No.
You’re going to explain every charge.”
“Move.”
“You spent years telling me family protects family,” he said.
“Was that only true when everyone obeyed you?”
Victoria turned toward Emily.
“Tell him to step aside before he loses his inheritance over a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Emily’s voice cracked.
“Someone opened an account in my name.”
Daniel looked at the carpet.
“I gave her a photograph of your card.”
Emily slowly turned toward him.
“You did what?”
“For the cake tasting,” he said.
“Mom said the hotel needed proof of identity.
I believed her.”
“You gave her my card without asking me?”
“I thought I was helping.”
Emily removed her engagement ring and placed it on the table.
Daniel reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
“I defended you to Dad,” she said.
“Every time he asked why your mother controlled another part of the wedding, I said you would stand up when it mattered.”
“I should have.”
“You watched her humiliate him.”
“I froze.”
“You always freeze when she tells you to.”
Daniel’s hand fell to his side.
“You’re right.”
The words silenced the room more completely than any shout could have.
Victoria gave a hard laugh.
“How moving.
Now put the ring back on and stop performing for these people.”
Emily’s shoulders shook.
She pressed one hand against the table as though it were the only solid thing left in the room.
“I don’t know if I can marry into this.”
I moved toward her, but Victoria’s sister, Lydia, reached her first.
Lydia had laughed earlier, though not as loudly as the others.
She removed her shawl and placed it around Emily’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” Lydia said.
“I should have stopped this before dinner.”
Victoria stared at her.
“Stay out of it, Lydia.”
“No.
I stayed out of it when you emptied Mother’s account for your anniversary gala.
I stayed quiet when you blamed the bookkeeper.
Look where silence brought us.”
A murmur traveled around the table.
Victoria’s face tightened.
“You have no proof.”
Lydia opened her handbag and removed a small flash drive.
“Your late husband asked me to keep this.
He said if you ever started using Daniel’s trust to control him, I should give it to Daniel.”
Daniel did not take it.
“What’s on there?”
“Copies of the trust statements,” Lydia said.
“And a recording of your father telling me why he changed the rules before he passed.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“You bitter little coward.
You’ve waited ten years for this.”
“I waited ten years hoping I would never need it.”
Victoria reached for the flash drive, but I caught her wrist before her fingers closed around it.
She pulled away and pointed at me.
“Touch me again, and my attorneys will bury you.”
Marcus raised his phone.
“The security cameras recorded everything, Mrs.
Whitmore.”
Victoria took out her own phone.
“Stephen, come to the restaurant now,” she said.
“Bring Robert Hayes’s signed guarantee and the trust documents.”
She ended the call and looked directly at Daniel.
“You have ten minutes to choose.
Her—or the life your father built for you.”
The private-room door opened behind her.
A woman in a gray coat stood there, breathing hard.
May you like
“My name is Claire,” she said.
“And Victoria has been signing my name too.”
