Chapter 6 - Victoria Finally Told the Truth

Victoria sat alone at the end of the ballroom.

The red gown that had looked powerful at midnight now looked heavy.

Gabriel stood across from her.

His father’s recording sat on the table between them.

“What did your mother want with me?”

Victoria stared at her hands.

“My family was losing money.”

Gabriel said nothing.

She continued.

“Not recently.”

“Back then.”

“Sixteen years ago.”

Joseph watched her carefully.

Victoria looked at him.

“My grandfather had built half the Hale businesses on borrowed money.”

Joseph nodded.

“I knew.”

“When the lenders started calling, my mother went to Marcus.”

Gabriel’s voice was cold.

“For information.”

“For access.”

“To what?”

Victoria looked at him.

“To your family’s legitimate companies.”

Gabriel frowned.

Joseph answered.

“Shipping.”

“Real estate.”

“Construction.”

“Everything Marcus could touch without asking me.”

Victoria nodded.

“My mother believed if she connected our families, the Hale debt would disappear inside larger companies.”

Gabriel stared at her.

“So our relationship was a business plan.”

Victoria closed her eyes.

“At first.”

Silence.

I stood near the doorway with Margaret.

Neither of us moved.

Gabriel asked:

“When did ‘at first’ begin?”

Victoria looked at him.

“The first charity dinner where we met.”

“Three years ago.”

“Yes.”

“Your mother sent you.”

“Yes.”

Gabriel looked away.

Victoria stood.

“But I did not stay because she told me to.”

He turned back.

“That does not erase what you knew.”

“I know.”

“When did you learn my father was alive?”

“Seven months ago.”

“When did you learn Marcus caused his disappearance?”

Victoria hesitated.

“Six weeks ago.”

“The day of the photograph.”

“Yes.”

“Why were you there?”

“My mother wanted Joseph to sign the transfer.”

Joseph said:

“I refused.”

Victoria nodded.

“She asked me to convince him.”

Gabriel stared at her.

“Did you?”

“No.”

Joseph looked at her.

“That is true.”

Gabriel turned to his father.

Joseph continued.

“Victoria told Evelyn to leave.”

Victoria started crying.

Gabriel’s expression did not change.

“Then why did you keep lying?”

She looked at him.

“Because my mother told me Marcus would kill Joseph if you knew before the transfer failed.”

Gabriel’s voice rose for the first time.

“So you helped them instead?”

“No.”

“You told Sophie to burn the letter.”

“Yes.”

“You tried to keep my father outside.”

“Yes.”

“Then explain the difference.”

Victoria took a breath.

“I was trying to get Joseph out of the city first.”

Margaret frowned.

“What?”

Victoria looked at her.

“I arranged another facility.”

“Under what name?”

“Thomas Reed.”

Margaret’s eyes widened.

“That transfer request came yesterday.”

Joseph looked at Victoria.

“You did that?”

She nodded.

“I thought if he disappeared somewhere Marcus could not find him, I could tell Gabriel everything after the deadline passed.”

Gabriel stared.

“You thought the answer to sixteen years of lies was another lie.”

Victoria whispered:

“Yes.”

There was nothing to defend after that.

Joseph reached for the cassette.

“There is more on this tape.”

He turned it over.

Side B.

I put it into the recorder.

The tape hissed.

Marcus’s voice returned.

“You keep Joseph alive until I control the boy.”

Evelyn asked:

“And when do you control Gabriel?”

Marcus answered:

“When he believes I am the only father he has left.”

Gabriel froze.

The recording continued.

Evelyn laughed softly.

“And if he grows up asking questions?”

Marcus said:

“Then we give him someone he trusts.”

The tape clicked.

Silence.

Victoria stared at the recorder.

Her face changed.

Gabriel looked at her.

“You didn’t know that part.”

She shook her head.

“No.”

Joseph looked toward the doorway.

“Marcus planned your entire life around replacing me.”

Gabriel said nothing.

Then the front security phone rang.

I answered.

A guard spoke quickly.

“Miss Lane, there’s a woman at the gate.”

“Who?”

He paused.

“Evelyn Hale.”

I looked at Victoria.

She closed her eyes.

The guard continued.

“She says she has the original ledger.”

Gabriel took the phone from me.

“Let her in.”

Joseph looked at him.

“Gabriel.”

Gabriel’s eyes stayed on the front doors.

“I have listened to everyone else explain my life tonight.”

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His voice became quiet.

“Now I want to hear from the woman who helped steal it.”