Chapter 14 - The Choice Victoria Finally Made)
Victoria Hale asked to see Olivia.
Reed almost refused.
Olivia agreed.
The meeting took place in an interview room with cameras running.
Ethan watched from behind the glass.
Victoria looked nothing like the bride from St. Matthew’s.
No makeup.
Plain clothes.
Hair tied back.
She stared at Olivia.
“You won.”
Olivia sat across from her.
“This isn’t winning.”
“You got Ethan back.”
“I didn’t come for Ethan.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You always had him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Victoria’s voice cracked.
“Even when he hated you, you had him.”
Olivia’s expression softened.
“That doesn’t excuse what you did.”
“I know.”
“You threatened my unborn child.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Lucy for years.”
“Yes.”
“You intercepted my letters.”
“Some.”
“How many?”
Victoria looked down.
“Twenty-three.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened behind the glass.
Olivia remained still.
“Where are they?”
“Samuel has some.”
“And the others?”
“I kept them.”
“Why?”
Victoria began crying.
“I don’t know.”
Olivia studied her.
“Yes, you do.”
Victoria wiped her face.
“I wanted to know what you kept saying to him.”
“You read them.”
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
“That was not yours to take.”
“I know.”
“Where are they?”
“My apartment.”
“Police searched it.”
“Not the apartment Ethan knows about.”
Ethan looked at Reed.
The detective wrote down an address as Victoria gave it.
A loft in Cambridge registered under a shell company.
Victoria continued.
“There’s a safe behind the bedroom wall.”
“Code?”
“0314.”
Olivia froze.
Ethan did too.
March 14.
The day Olivia and Ethan had met.
Victoria had used their anniversary as the code.
Olivia whispered, “Why?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Because I hated that date.”
Police searched the loft.
Inside the safe they found Olivia’s letters.
All twenty-three.
Ethan read them later that night.
In one Olivia told him she was pregnant.
In another she described Lucy’s birth.
In another she begged him to believe she had not left because she stopped loving him.
There were photographs.
Lucy at one.
Lucy at three.
Lucy losing her first tooth.
Lucy starting school.
Eleven years of fatherhood compressed into paper.
Ethan cried until he couldn’t continue.
Then he found an envelope Victoria had never opened.
It was addressed not to Ethan.
To Victoria.
Olivia had written it six years earlier.
Victoria,
I know you think you won.
You didn’t.
Neither did I.
Ethan lost someone he loved. I lost the man I loved. Lucy lost a father. And you built your future on the fear that one day he would discover the truth.
That is not victory.
If you still have a part of yourself that belongs to you instead of your father, use it before there is nothing left.
Olivia
Victoria had kept that letter too.
The next morning, she signed a cooperation agreement.
She provided investigators with account numbers.
Safe houses.
Names.
Security passwords.
Most importantly, she gave them access to Conrad Hale’s private archive.
Conrad had documented everything.
Blackmail worked better when you kept proof.
The archive connected him to illegal surveillance, kidnapping, financial crimes, bribery, and years of attempts to locate Olivia.
Victoria’s testimony implicated Samuel as well.
But before Reed could celebrate, Samuel Pierce died.
Cancer.
Organ failure.
No final confession.
No trial.
No public reckoning.
Just death.
Ethan felt almost nothing when told.
Then Reed added another detail.
Samuel’s attorney had delivered a sealed inheritance document.
Everything Samuel still controlled had been left to Ethan.
Northstar.
Properties.
Accounts.
Records.
Billions in hidden assets.
Ethan refused to sign acceptance.
“Can I destroy it?”
“Not immediately,” his lawyer said.
“Can I donate it?”
“We need to establish what assets are legal.”
“Then every legitimate dollar goes to victims.”
The lawyer nodded.
“And Northstar?”
Ethan looked at the old company logo on the documents.
“End it.”
For the first time, something felt resolved.
Conrad’s empire was collapsing.
Victoria was finally talking.
Samuel was gone.
Olivia was safe.
Lucy was home.
Thomas was alive.
Messy.
Painful.
But alive.
Weeks passed.
Ethan postponed every public appearance.
He attended Lucy’s school play instead.
She played a tree.
She had exactly one line.
Ethan applauded as if she had won an Oscar.
Olivia sat beside him.
When Lucy came running afterward, she hugged both of them at once.
For several seconds, Ethan allowed himself to believe this could become normal.
That evening they returned to Olivia’s small house.
Not Ethan’s penthouse.
Not Margaret’s mansion.
Olivia’s house.
Lucy ordered pizza.
Thomas visited.
Margaret came too.
The first dinner was awkward.
The second was worse.
The third contained actual laughter.
Forgiveness did not arrive like lightning.
It arrived as small permissions.
Margaret allowed Thomas to pour her coffee.
Ethan allowed Thomas to sit beside him.
Lucy asked Thomas whether being legally dead meant he had avoided taxes.
For the first time in years, Thomas laughed until he cried.
Victoria remained in custody.
Her final legal fate was undecided.
Ethan visited once.
She looked surprised.
“Why are you here?”
“I wanted to know why.”
“I already told you.”
“No.”
He sat.
“Why did you let Lucy reach the church?”
Victoria looked down.
Ethan waited.
Finally she said, “I knew Nora was planning it.”
“You could have stopped her.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“Because I knew if I married you that day, someone would eventually kill you.”
Ethan stared.
“So when Lucy walked through those doors…”
“I was terrified.”
“Of being exposed?”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“And relieved.”
Ethan sat in silence.
Then he stood.
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I know.”
“Maybe I never will.”
“I know.”
“But telling the truth matters.”
Victoria nodded.
Ethan reached the door.
She called after him.
“Ethan.”
He stopped.
“There’s one thing I haven’t told the police.”
He turned.
Victoria’s expression had changed.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know if it’s true.”
“What?”
“The night before our wedding, my father received a call.”
“From Samuel?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Victoria stared at him.
“He called the person Mr. Pierce.”
Ethan frowned.
“Thomas?”
“No.”
“Samuel?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
May you like
Victoria whispered:
“I think there’s another one.”
