Chapter 13 - What Victoria Finally Confessed
The officers took Victoria to a private sitting room for questioning.
Daniel insisted on remaining in the living room.
He stood by the window, watching investigators search the eastern garden.
Claire remained near Evelyn.
Samuel Vale sat beneath Eleanor’s portrait as if he had been invited there years earlier and had only just arrived.
“What key?” Claire asked him.
Samuel looked toward the brass key Evelyn carried.
“Not that one.”
“Then what are they talking about?”
“Your grandmother left many keys. Some were objects. Others were information.”
Claire’s patience broke.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“Eleanor discovered that someone had hidden original bearer certificates inside the eastern chamber. The certificates represented ownership in companies that later became part of a major infrastructure consortium.”
“How much are they worth?”
“If they remain legally valid, more than the mansion, Harbor Ridge, and Mercer Development combined.”
Daniel turned from the window.
“My mother knew?”
“She knew part of it.”
“What part?”
“She believed your father found the chamber.”
Daniel crossed the room.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
The single word silenced everyone.
Samuel continued.
“Charles intended to return the certificates to Eleanor. Victoria wanted him to use them to save Mercer Development from its first collapse.”
“My father refused?”
“He learned the certificates were connected to criminal funds. He hid the chamber again.”
“What happened to him?”
Samuel looked toward the sitting room where Victoria was being questioned.
“That truth should come from her.”
Daniel headed toward the door, but an officer stopped him.
Minutes later, Victoria agreed to speak in the living room with her attorney present by phone.
She entered without her pearls.
Without them, she seemed smaller.
Daniel faced her.
“Tell me how Father died.”
Victoria sat down.
“Your father had a heart condition.”
“That is not what I asked.”
She looked at Claire instead.
“This family was nearly bankrupt. Charles believed morality could pay employees and preserve homes. Eleanor convinced him to abandon the only asset capable of saving us.”
“So you killed him?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
“Did you cause his death?”
Victoria’s eyes closed.
“I confronted him in the eastern garden. He had taken documents from the chamber. We argued. He collapsed.”
“And you left him there?”
“I called for help.”
“When?”
Her silence answered.
Daniel stared at her.
“How long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
The room felt suddenly airless.
“You waited eleven minutes before calling an ambulance?”
“He told me where he hid the documents. I thought he was manipulating me. I searched his coat.”
Daniel turned away.
Claire saw his shoulders shake once before he forced himself still.
Victoria spoke more quickly.
“I did not know he would die. I thought he was pretending to frighten me.”
Samuel’s voice was cold.
“Charles never told you the location.”
“No.”
“So you spent twenty-seven years trying to find it.”
Victoria’s face hardened again.
“I spent twenty-seven years protecting what should have belonged to my son.”
Daniel looked over his shoulder.
“Do not use me to justify this.”
“I built everything for you.”
“You arranged my marriage to steal from Claire.”
“I arranged an introduction. You chose to marry her.”
“You taught me that love was another kind of leverage.”
Victoria flinched.
Daniel removed his wedding ring.
For a moment, Claire thought he would hand it to her.
Instead, he placed it beside the forged loan.
“I signed corporate approvals connected to that money,” he said to the officers. “I will provide everything.”
Victoria looked at him in disbelief.
“You would testify against your own mother?”
“You testified against me every day you let me believe Father died peacefully.”
Her attorney advised her to stop speaking.
Victoria ignored him.
She looked at Claire.
“You think you have won because the house is yours again.”
Claire answered calmly.
“The house was always mine.”
“You have no idea what Eleanor placed beneath it.”
“Neither do you.”
Victoria smiled.
That frightened Claire more than rage would have.
“No,” she said. “But the person who owns the other half does.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“What other half?”
Victoria looked toward Samuel.
He tightened his hands around the cane.
Claire noticed.
For the first time since entering the mansion, Samuel Vale appeared nervous.
Victoria laughed softly.
“Ask him why Eleanor scratched his face out of the photograph.”
Every eye turned toward Samuel.
Before he could answer, an investigator entered from the garden carrying a sealed metal box.
“We found this inside the east wall.”
The box had no lock.
Only a fingerprint plate.
When the investigator placed it on the table, a small green light appeared.
A recorded voice spoke from inside.
May you like
Identity confirmation required.
Claire Bennett.
