Chapter 8 - Victoria's Secret
Victoria contacted me first.
Not Julian.
Not Eleanor.
Me.
Her message arrived at 2:13 in the morning.
I need to talk. Alone.
Sarah advised against meeting without witnesses.
So Victoria came to the hospital conference room the next afternoon while Sarah listened from an adjoining office.
Victoria looked nothing like the woman who had entered my hospital room wearing Julian's coat.
No glamorous dress.
No confidence.
No smile.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Julian happened."
I almost laughed.
"You'll forgive me if sympathy is difficult."
"I'm not asking for sympathy."
"Then why are you here?"
She placed a flash drive on the table.
"Because he's going to blame everything on me."
I stared at it.
"What's on there?"
"Emails. Transfers. Messages."
"Why did you keep them?"
"Insurance."
That told me exactly what kind of relationship they had.
"When did the affair begin?"
"Fourteen months ago."
I absorbed the number.
Hazel had been conceived ten months earlier.
Julian had been sleeping with Victoria while we were trying to have a child.
My hands curled beneath the blanket.
Victoria looked down.
"He told me your marriage was over."
"Yet somehow forgot to mention that to me."
"I know."
"Did you know about the plan to take my company?"
She hesitated.
"Not at first."
"Later?"
"Yes."
"And you helped him."
"Yes."
The honesty surprised me.
"Why?"
"Because he promised me part of it."
There it was.
Not love.
Greed.
"What changed?"
Victoria's eyes filled with fear.
"Last night he told his attorney that I manipulated the transactions."
"Did you?"
"Some. Under his instructions."
"So you're both responsible."
"Yes."
I hadn't expected that answer.
She pushed the flash drive closer.
"But Eleanor designed the incapacity plan."
My skin went cold.
"What?"
"Julian wanted the company. Eleanor wanted everything."
Victoria told me Eleanor had spent months researching ways to challenge my control if I became medically vulnerable.
Nobody could have predicted the spinal hematoma.
But they had already prepared strategies for illness, accident, psychiatric crisis, even death.
Then Victoria said something that made the entire room disappear around me.
"There's a life insurance policy."
I stared at her.
"What policy?"
"Julian increased it six months ago."
"How much?"
"Ten million dollars."
For the first time, Sarah entered the room without waiting.
"Stop talking."
Victoria looked frightened.
Sarah took the flash drive.
"From this point forward, you're speaking through counsel."
I looked at Sarah.
"You think they wanted me dead?"
"We don't speculate."
May you like
But her face had changed.
And that night, hospital security outside my room doubled.
