Chapter 6: The Woman Who Knew Everything First
The call lasted four minutes.
Victor's security team had flagged it within the hour — an outgoing call from the guest room to a number registered to a woman named Diana Voss.
The name meant nothing to Rosa.
It meant nothing to the security team's junior analyst.
But when Victor's head of security, a careful man named Grant, ran it through the firm's extended network, he went very quiet.
Diana Voss was Serena's mother.
And Diana Voss had worked, briefly and a long time ago, as a paralegal for the estate law firm that had drafted Claire's prenuptial agreement.
Grant brought the information to Victor at seven in the morning.
Victor was in the nursery, sitting on the floor with Ethan, who was pulling himself upright using Victor's sleeve as a handle.
Grant stood in the doorway.
He didn't come in.
"Tell me," Victor said without looking up.
Grant told him.
Ethan let go of Victor's sleeve, wobbled, and sat down hard on the carpet.
He looked surprised.
Then he looked at Victor.
Victor picked him up.
"Diana Voss had access to the prenuptial terms," Grant said.
"She would have known the asset protection clauses.
She would have known exactly what a surviving spouse was entitled to — and what a fiancée would need to establish in order to make a legal claim."
"And Serena came to me eighteen months after Claire d*ed."
"Yes."
Victor held Ethan against his chest.
Ethan grabbed his collar.
"They planned this before she ever walked into that charity event," Victor said.
"That's what it looks like."
"How long would they have needed to prepare?"
Grant hesitated.
"The property transfer was filed eight months ago.
But the shell company Marcus used was incorporated almost two years ago." He paused.
"Sir — that was before Claire passed."
The room was very quiet.
Ethan made a small sound against Victor's shoulder.
"They were ready before she was gone," Victor said.
"Yes."
Victor stood up slowly.
He carried Ethan to the window.
Outside, the morning was grey and still.
"I want Diana Voss's full history.
Everything connected to that law firm.
Every document she touched that had my name or Claire's name on it." He turned from the window.
"And I want to know if there is any way she had access to Claire's medical records."
Grant's expression shifted.
"You think the complication—"
"I don't know what I think yet," Victor said.
"I want the facts first."
Grant nodded and left.
Victor stood at the window a while longer.
Ethan had fallen quiet, one fist curled into the fabric of Victor's shirt, his breathing slow and even.
"I'm sorry," Victor said softly.
He wasn't talking to Ethan.
He was talking to Claire.
---
Downstairs, Victor's lead attorney, a woman named Patricia Cho, arrived at eight thirty with two colleagues and a document case.
Victor met her in the study.
"How bad?" she asked, before he could speak.
"Worse than last night," he said.
He laid out everything — the recordings, the file on Marcus Hale, the property transfer, Diana Voss, the shell company's incorporation date.
Patricia listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she was quiet for a moment.
"The incorporation date is the most important piece," she said.
"If we can establish that the scheme was designed before Claire's death, and that Diana Voss used privileged information from the prenuptial process to build it, we're not looking at civil fraud.
We're looking at criminal conspiracy."
"Can you prove it?"
"Not alone.
We'll need a forensic accountant and a digital investigator on the shell company." She looked at him steadily.
"And we'll need to move before Serena or Marcus can destroy anything."
"What do you need from me?"
"Authorization to contact the financial crimes unit.
And one more thing." She set a single sheet of paper on the desk.
"I need you to decide today whether you want this handled quietly or publicly."
Victor looked at the paper.
"Quietly protects your family's name in the short term," Patricia said.
"Publicly protects the next person they try this on."
Victor picked up the pen.
He signed.
"Publicly," he said.
Patricia picked up the authorization and stood.
May you like
"Then we start today," she said.
She was already dialing before she reached the door.
