Chapter 4 - WHAT VICTORIA HAD BEEN HIDING
The mansion looked different when we returned.
Not because the building had changed.
Because I understood it now.
For three years, I had walked through those rooms believing I was the outsider.
Now I knew the truth.
I was the person the trust had been designed to protect.
Victoria was the one who had been holding something that never belonged to her.
Ethan unlocked the front door.
Nobody answered.
The house was empty.
His mother had apparently moved into a hotel.
We went directly to the study.
The letter from Ethan's grandfather mentioned a hidden chamber beneath the estate.
Ethan examined the fireplace.
I looked behind the bookshelf.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the hallway.
The floorboard outside the study had always creaked.
I crouched.
One board sounded different.
Ethan grabbed a flashlight.
We removed it.
Beneath it was a metal ring.
He pulled.
A section of the floor opened.
A staircase descended into darkness.
I stared.
“How long has this been here?”
“Generations.”
We went down.
The chamber was small.
A desk.
Several shelves.
A steel cabinet.
And one wooden box.
I opened it.
Inside were old trust documents.
Letters.
Photographs.
And a recording.
Ethan found an old player.
We pressed play.
A man's voice filled the chamber.
His grandfather.
The Caldwell family trust was created to protect the family's descendants from outsiders.
It was never designed to empower one person.
Victoria will attempt to control it.
She believes money makes her the head of the family.
It does not.
The trust belongs to the bloodline and its protected heirs.
Ethan looked at me.
The recording continued.
If Victoria ever becomes trustee, she must be removed immediately if she acts against a direct heir or spouse.
Violence, coercion, intimidation, and fraudulent legal action shall constitute grounds for removal.
My heart pounded.
The recording was exactly what we needed.
Evidence.
Victoria had attacked me.
Locked me in a room.
Cut my hair.
Threatened me.
Then tried to have Ethan declared incompetent.
The trust required her removal.
But there was more.
A second recording.
This time it was Victoria's voice.
She sounded younger.
Terrified.
“I can't let them change the trust.”
A man's voice answered.
“Then make sure Ethan never marries her.”
I froze.
The man's voice belonged to Victoria's father.
The plan had begun before my wedding.
They had known that a marriage could activate the trust.
They wanted Ethan to remain unmarried.
Or marry someone they controlled.
I looked at Ethan.
“They knew.”
He nodded.
“My entire family knew.”
The final recording contained another voice.
A lawyer.
“Once the marriage occurs, the trust passes to the spouse. We must prevent that.”
Victoria responded:
“I'll handle it.”
The recording ended.
I felt sick.
Everything Victoria had done had been planned.
She had not simply disliked me.
She had been trying to prevent me from becoming the legal beneficiary.
The cut hair.
The humiliation.
The isolation.
The threats.
It had all been part of something much bigger.
Then Ethan found another document.
A list of names.
Four women.
Each had dated an heir in the Caldwell family.
Next to each name was a note.
REMOVED.
REPUTATION DAMAGED.
RELATIONSHIP TERMINATED.
I stared.
“How many women did she do this to?”
“Four that we know of.”
Ethan looked devastated.
“She destroyed people's lives.”
“Because they threatened her control.”
Then we found the fifth name.
Mine.
Beside it:
IN PROGRESS.
Ethan's face turned white.
“She was still doing it.”
“Until yesterday.”
We took photographs of everything.
Then we returned upstairs.
The phone rang.
Unknown number.
Ethan answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Victoria knows you found the room.”
Then the line went dead.
I looked at Ethan.
“She wasn't supposed to know.”
He frowned.
“How would she?”
We turned toward the study.
Someone had been inside.
A folder was missing.
May you like
The one containing the original trust document.
Victoria had beaten us to it.
