Chapter 12 - The Woman Behind the Cruelty
Rosa did not want to meet Victoria.
Ethan agreed.
Then Victoria sent another message.
It included a photograph.
Rosa stared at it.
The photograph had been taken months earlier.
Lily was sitting in the estate garden.
Rosa was beside her.
In the distant background stood Victoria.
Watching them.
Rosa felt cold.
“How long was she watching us?”
Ethan did not know.
Victoria requested ten minutes.
No lawyers.
No recording.
Rosa eventually agreed on one condition.
Ethan would remain nearby.
They met in the glass conservatory.
Victoria looked different without perfect makeup and carefully arranged hair.
Tired.
Human.
Rosa remained standing.
“You have ten minutes.”
Victoria nodded.
“I hated you before I knew you.”
Rosa almost laughed.
“That’s supposed to help?”
“No.”
Victoria looked toward the garden.
“My mother worked as a hotel housekeeper.”
Rosa froze.
“I grew up in Queens.”
“My father didn’t become wealthy until I was fourteen.”
“We lived in a two-bedroom apartment.”
“My mother cleaned rooms.”
“Kids at school found out.”
“They called me the maid’s daughter.”
Rosa stared at her.
Victoria continued.
“I promised myself nobody would ever look down on me again.”
“So you became the person who looks down on everyone else?”
Victoria flinched.
“Yes.”
The answer surprised Rosa.
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“When I saw Lily at the piano, I didn’t see a child.”
“I saw everything I spent my life escaping.”
“And then I realized Ethan might choose you.”
“Not because you were richer.”
“Not because you had connections.”
“Because he loved you once.”
Rosa’s expression hardened.
“That explains your insecurity.”
“It does not excuse touching my daughter.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Victoria nodded.
“I watched the security footage.”
“I barely recognized myself.”
Rosa crossed her arms.
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you here?”
Victoria reached into her purse.
She removed a flash drive.
“I found this while investigating you.”
Rosa did not take it.
“What is it?”
“Emails between Charles Weller and my father.”
Ethan stepped into the conservatory.
Victoria looked at him.
“You were listening.”
“Yes.”
Victoria did not complain.
She held up the drive.
“My father knew about Lily before I did.”
Ethan stared.
“How?”
“Weller contacted him after our engagement announcement.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted protection.”
“From what?”
Victoria looked at Rosa.
“From you.”
Rosa frowned.
Victoria continued.
“Weller was afraid that if Ethan ever discovered what happened, he would expose everything.”
“My father promised to protect him if he kept quiet until after the wedding.”
Ethan’s face darkened.
Victoria placed the drive on the table.
“This proves it.”
Rosa looked at her.
“Why give it to us?”
Victoria’s voice broke.
“Because I already became the worst version of myself.”
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life protecting men who helped create her.”
She nodded toward the house where Lily was playing.
Then Victoria turned to leave.
Rosa stopped her.
“Victoria.”
She looked back.
“I don’t forgive you.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know.”
“But I hope you become someone who never does this again.”
Victoria’s face crumpled.
“That’s more than I deserve.”
She walked away.
May you like
And for the first time, Rosa understood that some villains were not born cruel.
Sometimes they simply spent so long running from shame that they became exactly what once hurt them.
