Chương 13
Victoria’s restraint cracked slightly.
“I was seventeen.”
She looked toward the window.
“I knew my mother was annoyed because the kitchen light buzzed and the outlet behind the refrigerator got hot.”
Genevieve’s stomach tightened.
“Did investigators know?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They said the fire started in a wall cavity after renovation work.”
Sarah asked, “Who performed the work?”
Victoria laughed once.
“You think I haven’t spent fourteen years trying to answer that?”
Genevieve looked down.
“Fair.”
Victoria seemed almost surprised by the response.
She continued more quietly.
“My mother died of smoke inhalation before firefighters reached the back bedroom.”
Genevieve’s hand tightened around Hazel.
“I’m sorry.”
Victoria’s face hardened immediately.
“Don’t.”
Genevieve stopped.
“I don’t want your sympathy.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I probably don’t.”
That answer took some of the fight out of Victoria.
She looked at the baby.
“My mother would have loved babies.”
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
A machine in the hallway beeped twice.
Someone rolled a laundry hamper past the door.
Victoria wiped beneath one eye with her thumb.
“When Julian found the file, he thought he’d found a weapon.”
Genevieve went still.
“When did he find it?”
“Eight months ago.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“That predates your relationship?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Yes.”
Genevieve felt a strange, humiliating relief.
It lasted less than a second.
“When did the affair start?”
“Five months ago.”
Genevieve swallowed.
“So you met him because of the file.”
“He came to me.”
“Why?”
“He searched my name after reading the settlement schedule.”
Genevieve looked at Sarah.
That made sense.
Too much sense.
“He told you.”
“Not everything.”
Victoria leaned forward.
“He wanted to know what I knew about the fire.”
“And you trusted him?”
“No.”
A bitter smile appeared.
“I slept with him.”
Genevieve stared at her.
Victoria shrugged weakly.
“Those are not the same thing.”
Sarah looked away.
Genevieve almost admired the ugliness of the honesty.
Almost.
“What did you want from him?”
“The original records.”
“Why?”
“Because I never got the full settlement.”
There it was.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed.
“How much did you receive?”
“Thirty-two thousand dollars when I turned eighteen.”
Genevieve felt cold.
“The schedule says two hundred and eighty.”
Victoria looked at her.
For the first time, genuine shock crossed her face.
“What?”
Sarah moved between them slightly.
“Genevieve.”
But it was too late.
Victoria stood.
“Two hundred and eighty thousand?”
Genevieve realized the mistake immediately.
Victoria had not known.
“You recovered the file.”
Sarah said nothing.
Victoria’s face drained of color.
“Kessler told me the settlement was forty thousand after legal costs.”
Genevieve stared at her.
“What happened to the rest?”
Victoria gave a small, broken laugh.
“That is what I would very much like to know.”
She sat again because her knees seemed to fail.
Sarah spoke carefully.
“Victoria, do not make assumptions about missing funds until records are traced.”
Victoria looked up at her.
“My mother died and somebody paid almost a quarter million dollars I never saw.”
“I understand what it looks like.”
“No, you understand what it bills like.”
Sarah absorbed that without reacting.
Genevieve shifted Hazel higher.
“What does Julian know?”
Victoria wiped her face.
“He thinks Richard took it.”
The sentence hit harder than Genevieve expected.
“My father?”
“He found transfers.”
“What transfers?”
“Kestrel paid Kessler’s trust account.”
“That part matches the file.”
“Then money moved from Kessler to a private entity.”
“What entity?”
Victoria looked directly at Genevieve.
“RJV Holdings.”
Genevieve stopped breathing.
Those were her father’s initials.
Sarah’s voice became very quiet.
“Do you have proof?”
“Julian does.”
“Where?”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“On his laptop.”
“The laptop he left the hospital with.”
“Yes.”
Genevieve looked toward the door.
“And he went to the lake house for the token.”
Victoria nodded.
“He believes the archived ledger proves Richard diverted settlement money.”
“Why does Julian care?”
Victoria laughed without humor.
“Because your husband is not trying to save your company.”
She leaned forward.
“He’s trying to buy it.”
Genevieve stared at Victoria until the meaning settled into something solid enough to touch.
“Buy it with what?”
“Not his money.”
Victoria’s voice had gone flat again.
“He’s been talking to Halcyon Capital.”
Sarah’s expression changed.
Genevieve knew the name.
Halcyon bought distressed companies, stripped what they wanted, and sold the remains with language about strategic realignment.
“They approached us last year.”
“You rejected them.”
“Yes.”
“Julian didn’t.”
Genevieve felt a slow pressure behind her eyes.
“He can’t sell Vance.”
“Not while you control the shares.”
Victoria looked toward the documents on the bed.
“That’s why he needed you declared unable to act.”
Sarah picked up the forged memorandum again.
“And temporary voting authority.”
Victoria nodded.
“Halcyon agreed to fund a management-led acquisition if Julian could establish control long enough to push through emergency refinancing.”
Genevieve almost admired the architecture of it.
Almost.
“He creates a crisis, takes control to solve it, and sells the company during the cure.”
“Yes.”
“Where does the old fire fit?”
Victoria looked down.
“Leverage.”
“Against me?”
“Against everyone.”
Victoria rubbed the cuff of the hospital scrub top between her fingers.
“If the settlement file showed Richard concealed liability, Halcyon could argue the company faced exposure serious enough to justify emergency action.”
Sarah shook her head.
“That is not how a buyer simply acquires a privately controlled company.”
“I know.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Julian knows too.”
“Then what was the real plan?”
Victoria’s eyes returned to Genevieve.
“To make you choose.”
Genevieve felt cold.
“Choose what?”
“Let him take control quietly, or watch your father’s name get dragged through every lawsuit, lender review, board investigation, and newspaper story he could trigger.”
Sarah’s mouth tightened.
“He was blackmailing his own wife.”
“He called it protecting the company.”
Genevieve gave a small laugh.
“Of course he did.”
Victoria flinched.
That reaction told Genevieve Julian had used the phrase often.
“He said you would never sacrifice the company to protect your father.”
Victoria continued.
May you like
“But you would sacrifice yourself to protect both.”
Genevieve looked at the forged signature.
