Chapter 18 - Victoria’s BargainVictoria looked different without the castle.
No designer dress.
No champagne.
No staff waiting nearby.
Just a gray detention uniform and a glass partition.
Emily sat across from her.
Victoria smiled.
“You came.”
“I want the journal pages.”
Victoria leaned back.
“I want immunity.”
“No.”
“Then we’re done.”
Emily stood.
Victoria’s smile vanished.
“Wait.”
Emily stopped.
“You don’t control this conversation.”
Victoria clenched her jaw.
Emily sat again.
“You can trade information with prosecutors. Not me.”
“I need you to tell them I saved your life.”
Emily almost laughed.
“You tried to drown me.”
“I stopped when Richard arrived.”
“That is not saving me.”
Victoria looked away.
Emily continued.
“Give me the pages because they help expose Charles.”
“And what do I get?”
“The chance not to be exactly like him.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“Don’t.”
“Like Daniel then.”
“Stop.”
Emily leaned closer.
“You thought humiliation was power.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“You know nothing about my father.”
“I know he betrayed Eleanor.”
“He also saved her.”
Emily paused.
Victoria noticed.
“The journal says why.”
“Tell me.”
Victoria looked at the guard.
Then back.
“My father hated Charles.”
“Eventually.”
“He spent the rest of his life trying to undo what he’d done.”
Richard had said Daniel worshipped Charles.
Another lie?
Or another incomplete truth?
Victoria continued.
“Daniel kept records because he planned to expose the network.”
“Then why didn’t he?”
“He died first.”
“The car accident.”
Victoria nodded.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
Emily thought of Anna’s brake line.
The pattern was obvious.
“Who killed him?”
“Samuel Cross.”
Emily froze.
“No.”
Victoria smiled.
“You trust him?”
“He warned me.”
“Exactly.”
Emily stared.
“What proof do you have?”
Victoria lifted one hand.
“Journal pages.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
“Give them to prosecutors.”
“I will.”
“Then why call me?”
“Because one page is about your mother.”
Emily went still.
“What does it say?”
Victoria leaned forward.
“Anna met Samuel two weeks before her crash.”
Emily’s heart hammered.
“Why?”
“To give him the same evidence she later gave Michael.”
“Did Samuel know she was in Thomas’s car?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily studied her.
“You’re trying to turn me against him.”
“I’m telling you nobody in this story is clean.”
That, unfortunately, felt true.
Victoria reached into a folder provided by her attorney.
She slid a photocopy under the partition.
Emily read.
Daniel’s handwriting.
S.C. has returned. He says Charles’s network must remain buried even after Father’s death.
Another line.
If I disappear, Richard must know Samuel is not protecting the family. He is protecting the machine.
Emily felt cold.
Victoria watched her.
“You wanted the truth.”
Emily looked up.
“Why didn’t you tell Richard?”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“Because I thought the machine would protect me.”
There it was.
Her arrogance had roots.
“You thought Samuel was on your side.”
“I thought powerful people reward loyalty.”
“And?”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“They reward usefulness.”
Emily folded the photocopy.
“Where are the originals?”
“With my lawyer.”
“Give them to investigators.”
“I will.”
Emily stood.
Victoria said, “Emily.”
She stopped.
Victoria stared at the table.
For the first time, her voice was quiet.
“I knew who you were when I hired you.”
“I know.”
“I hated you before I met you.”
“I know.”
“When I saw you scrubbing floors…”
She swallowed.
“I felt relieved.”
Emily said nothing.
“Because if you were ordinary, then maybe blood didn’t matter.”
Emily frowned.
Victoria continued.
“Then every time you were kind to staff, every time guests liked you, every time Richard thanked you…”
Her jaw tightened.
“I hated you more.”
Emily looked at her.
“That sounds exhausting.”
Victoria laughed once.
Then tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily stared.
The words did not heal anything.
They did not erase the water.
Or the terror.
Or the humiliation.
But they changed the room.
Emily finally said, “You should be.”
Then she walked away.
Outside, Richard was waiting.
Emily handed him the photocopy.
He read it.
His face changed.
“Samuel.”
Emily nodded.
Richard looked toward the courthouse doors.
“I knew he was dangerous.”
“But you still let him near the company.”
“I thought he feared exposure.”
Emily looked at him.
“What if he caused my mother’s crash?”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Then we prove it.”
Emily’s phone rang.
Samuel.
She answered.
His first words were:
“Don’t go back to the castle.”
Emily froze.
“Why?”
A sound exploded through the phone.
Glass breaking.
May you like
Then Samuel shouted:
“They’re already inside.”
