Chapter 6: What Daniel’s Father Left Behind
Patricia placed the ledger beside the guarantee.
“My seal disappeared from Stephen Weller’s office during my final week,” she said.
“Mrs.
Whitmore was there that afternoon.”
Stephen stepped back.
“I had nothing to do with that.”
Patricia opened the ledger.
“Then explain why this number belongs to a document notarized six years ago.”
Victoria pointed toward Claire.
“She had access to Stephen’s office.”
“I had never met him until tonight,” Claire said.
Stephen turned to Victoria.
“You told me Robert signed in your home.”
“And you believed me.”
“You assured me Patricia witnessed it.”
“Be careful,” Victoria said.
“Your name is on more than one Whitmore document.”
Stephen’s jaw tightened.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s advice.”
Daniel inserted Lydia’s flash drive into Claire’s laptop.
An audio file appeared with his father’s name and a date recorded three weeks before his passing.
Victoria reached across the table.
“Turn that off.”
Daniel pressed play.
His father’s tired voice filled the room.
“Lydia, if you’re hearing this, Victoria has started moving money from Daniel’s trust.
She says it’s temporary, but she has hidden the statements from him.
My son loves his mother.
She will use that love as a leash.”
Daniel gripped the edge of the laptop.
The recording continued.
“Tell Daniel I should have stopped her sooner.
Tell him the trust passes to an independent administrator if she uses it for personal expenses or threatens to withhold it to control his marriage.”
Victoria pulled the power cord from the computer.
The recording continued on battery.
“You turned him against me before he was even gone,” she said.
“No,” Lydia replied.
“He was trying to protect his son.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
“How much did you take?”
“Nothing that wasn’t returned.”
“How much?”
Victoria looked toward Stephen.
He closed his folder.
“I cannot answer for her.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“How much, Mom?”
“Four hundred and twenty thousand dollars,” Claire said.
“The transfers paid for galas, club dues, and the renovation of Victoria’s apartment.”
Victoria raised her hand toward Claire, but Emily moved between them.
“Don’t.”
Victoria lowered it slowly.
“You think standing beside Daniel makes you one of us?” she asked.
“By morning, I can have your employer questioning every expense report you ever filed.”
Emily’s face crumpled.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you.
I know what women like you want.”
“My mother passed when I was sixteen,” Emily said.
“I wanted to believe you might someday treat me like a daughter.”
Victoria’s expression did not soften.
“You were never going to be my daughter.”
Emily turned away, and a sob escaped before she could stop it.
I gathered her into my arms while Lydia held her hand.
“I’m here,” I told her.
Daniel knelt beside Emily.
“I let her hurt you because I was afraid of losing money I never earned,” he said.
“That is the ugliest truth I have ever spoken.”
Emily looked at him through tears.
“Then don’t ask me to put the ring back on.”
“I won’t.”
“You need to become a man who can stand without her permission.”
“I will—even if you never marry me.”
Victoria picked up her bag.
“This performance changes nothing.
The trust still answers to me.”
Lydia raised Daniel’s father’s letter.
“Not after tonight.”
Marcus entered with two bank representatives and the restaurant’s head of security.
One representative looked directly at Victoria.
“Mrs.
Whitmore, Daniel’s trust accounts have been temporarily frozen.”
Victoria’s handbag slipped from her fingers.
May you like
The second representative opened a tablet.
“And we’ve just found a transfer you made this morning—to an account no one here was supposed to know existed.”
