Chapter 10 - THE FIANCÉE WHO CHANGED SIDES
Nathan found Victoria inside a locked office.
She had been hit across the face.
One sleeve of her white blouse was torn.
But she was alive.
Richard and Dominic were gone.
So was Evan.
Nathan broke the lock and opened the door.
Victoria looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Finally, Nathan removed his coat and handed it to her.
She wrapped it around herself.
“I’m sorry.”
Nathan’s expression remained cold.
“For which part?”
She looked down.
“The wages.”
“The lies.”
“Richard.”
“Everything.”
Nathan said nothing.
Victoria continued.
“Richard approached me three years ago.”
“Before I met you.”
“He told me you were destroying the family.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“And you believed him?”
“I believed enough.”
“He offered money.”
“Access.”
“A future.”
“What future?”
“Marriage to you.”
Nathan stared.
Victoria swallowed.
“He arranged our first meeting.”
Nathan remembered the hotel fundraiser.
He had thought it was chance.
Nothing had been chance.
“He told you to seduce me.”
“Yes.”
Margaret stood near the door.
Victoria looked at her.
“But I didn’t know about you.”
“Not at first.”
“When did you learn?”
“Six months ago.”
“Richard told me the household staff were helping hide Ellis Trust records.”
“So you punished them.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“I thought someone would reveal something.”
Ruth’s missing wages.
The injured worker.
Margaret’s bleeding hand.
Nathan’s anger returned.
“You abused people to find documents.”
Victoria nodded.
“I don’t have an excuse.”
“No.”
“You don’t.”
She looked at Nathan.
“I can give you Dominic’s accounts.”
“Richard’s communications.”
“And the location where they moved Samuel.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“Where?”
“Lake Wylie.”
“An old Rainer property.”
Nathan turned to Aaron.
“Teams.”
Victoria grabbed Nathan’s sleeve.
“No.”
He looked down.
“They’ll be expecting you.”
“They want Margaret.”
“They need Margaret.”
“That means Samuel is leverage.”
Nathan pulled his arm free.
“Then we take away their leverage.”
They reached the Rainer property before dawn.
The house appeared abandoned.
Inside, they found medical equipment.
Food.
Fresh blood.
No Samuel.
But Nathan found a voice recorder.
He pressed play.
Samuel’s voice filled the room.
“If you are hearing this, Dominic moved me.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Samuel continued.
“The second ledger is not money.”
“It is names.”
“Names of people who built the network.”
“Names of people who tried to destroy it.”
“And one name Nathan must understand before he trusts Victoria Caldwell.”
Victoria looked up.
Samuel’s recorded voice continued.
“Victoria’s father did not die in a boating accident.”
“He was murdered.”
“By Richard Whitmore.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
Nathan looked at her.
Samuel continued.
“And Victoria’s mother knew.”
“She spent twenty years preparing her daughter to enter the Whitmore family.”
Victoria whispered.
“No.”
The recording continued.
“Victoria was never Richard’s weapon.”
“She was her mother’s.”
The recorder clicked off.
Victoria stood in silence.
Then her phone, returned temporarily by Aaron for forensic monitoring, received a message.
MOTHER.
Victoria stared at the screen.
Her mother had supposedly been living in France.
The message contained only a location.
May you like
And three words.
FINISH WHAT I STARTED.
