Chapter 6: The Betrayal That Began Years Ago
The name came next.
“Richard Voss,” Eleanor said.
“He dismissed Claire after she discovered his private agreement with my nephew, Martin.”
My former boss had told me I was being dismissed for mishandling confidential records.
Victor had stood in our kitchen that night and called me reckless.
I turned toward him.
“You knew Richard had framed me.”
Victor looked at Daniel.
“Stop this video.”
Daniel did not move.
“You let me believe I had ruined our family,” I said.
“You refused to listen to practical advice.”
“You watched me cry at that kitchen table.”
“You chose Eleanor.”
“I chose the truth.”
Victor struck the tablet’s power button, but Samuel pulled it away.
“The original is stored in three locations,” Samuel said.
“Touch it again, and the court will be informed.”
Eleanor continued speaking.
“Richard provided Victor with copies of Claire’s case notes.
Victor gave them to Martin in exchange for an interest in the company they planned to take from me.”
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Victor, Martin, and Richard were seated together at a restaurant two weeks before my dismissal.
Daniel removed his glasses.
“Victor, did you disclose any business agreement with Martin Whitaker?”
“That photograph proves nothing.”
“The signed agreement does,” Eleanor said from the screen.
She held up a contract bearing all three names.
Victor grabbed his phone.
“This hearing is over.”
The judge’s clerk blocked the door.
“No one leaves until the judge returns.”
Victor typed quickly.
Samuel’s phone chimed, then went dark.
“What happened?” I asked.
Samuel checked the screen.
“Someone is deleting files from the estate server.”
Victor stopped typing.
Daniel stared at him.
“Tell me you did not just access that system.”
“I was checking my email.”
Samuel called his office and put the phone on speaker.
A frightened assistant answered.
“The video archive is gone.
The contract scans too.”
Victor smiled.
“Then Eleanor’s claims cannot be authenticated.”
For one terrible moment, nobody spoke.
He had found a way into the server.
Without the original records, Richard and Martin could argue that the video had been altered.
Marianne stepped into the room carrying a battered laptop.
“Victor forgot that he made me keep the family backups.”
He stared at her.
“What did you do?”
“What you ordered me to do for fifteen years.
I saved everything.”
She opened the laptop.
“When Victor changed phones, he gave me the old ones to wipe.
I didn’t know how, so I put them in Mother’s cabinet.”
Samuel inserted one of the drives.
Messages filled the screen—Victor instructing Richard to dismiss me, Victor promising Martin access to Eleanor, and Victor asking how quickly he could control Lily’s trust if I lost custody.
“You had this all along?” I asked Marianne.
“I thought he was hiding affairs.” Her voice broke.
“I never imagined this.”
Victor reached for the laptop.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Do not touch my sister’s property,” Marianne said.
Victor looked at Daniel.
“You work for me.”
“Not anymore.” Daniel placed his case on the table.
“I’m withdrawing, and I will give the court a complete record of every false statement you made to me.”
“You’ll destroy your own reputation.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“I’ll protect what remains of it.”
Lily came to my side.
Tears ran down her cheeks, but she kept her voice steady.
“Daddy, did you make Mommy lose her job?”
Victor looked at the adults instead of his daughter.
“I built this family.
Everything I did was to keep control.”
Lily slipped her hand into mine.
“That isn’t the same as loving us.”
A bank alert sounded from Marianne’s laptop.
Samuel read it twice.
“Two million four hundred thousand dollars has just been transferred from the Hale marital account.”
May you like
I looked at Victor.
He was holding his passport.
