Chapter 5 - The Confession in the Glass
I left Julian under Marco’s heavy guard and walked down the silent corridor toward the glass conservatory at the back of the house. I knew where Vivienne would be. Whenever she felt cornered, she retreated to places where she could look out, places where she felt she had the upper hand.
She was standing among the exotic ferns and orchids, holding a glass of wine she must have taken from a passing tray earlier. The dim lighting from the garden spotlights cast long, jagged shadows across her face.
When she heard my footsteps, she didn’t turn around.
“Is Julian alive?” she asked, her voice surprisingly steady.
“He’s alive,” I said, stopping a few feet behind her. “And he’s talking. He told me everything, Vivienne. The offshore accounts, the forged ledgers, the money from your father’s failing firm.”
Vivienne took a slow sip of her wine, then turned around to face me. The panic that had consumed her earlier had been replaced by a cold, calculating detachment. The mask was back, but now it was sharp and vicious.
“Julian was always weak,” she said with a bitter smile. “He panics at the first sign of rain. I told him you wouldn’t pull the trigger without proof, but he always lacked spine.”
“You killed Sofia,” I said, the words heavy and metallic in my mouth.
Vivienne set her glass down on a wrought-iron table with a sharp clink. “She was a servant, Damian. A nobody. She stumbled into things that didn’t concern her. She found the digital sub-routines on your study computer while cleaning and actually had the nerve to confront me. She thought she was being righteous. She threatened to go to you, to destroy everything I worked for!”
“She was an innocent woman raising a child!” I snapped, taking a step toward her. “She trusted this family! She trusted me!”
“She was a threat!” Vivienne hissed, her eyes narrowing. “Do you know what would have happened if she brought those numbers to light? My family would be ruined. The merger would have collapsed! I did what had to be done to save us!”
“Save us?” I let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. “You did it to save yourself. You used my house, my name, my reputation, and then you murdered a woman in cold blood right beneath my roof!”
“It was quick,” Vivienne said coldly, without a trace of remorse. “A simple potassium chloride injection behind the ear while she was preparing her evening tea. It leaves almost no trace, mimics a cardiac event or a stroke perfectly. The coroner was easy to handle. I took her key, opened her lockbox to retrieve her notes, and took that stupid ring as a trophy.”
I stared at her, feeling a profound disgust rising in my chest. “You kept the ring as a trophy?”
“I kept it to remind myself of what happens to people who get in my way,” she said, stepping closer to me, her sapphire dress whisper-soft against the stone floor. “And what are you going to do now, Damian? Call the police? Arrest the daughter of Montgomery Holdings? Do you know what that will do to your stock price? The scandal will destroy your company’s valuation overnight.”
She reached out, running a cold manicured nail along the lapel of my jacket.
“We can fix this,” she whispered, her voice dropping into a seductive, toxic purr. “We blame Julian. We say he acted alone, that he embezzled the money and killed the maid to hide his tracks. Julian will take the fall—he’s soft, he’ll take a plea deal. We still get married. We still merge the assets. You keep your empire, and I keep mine.”
I looked down at her face, truly seeing her for the monster she was for the very first time.
“You really think everything in this world can be bought, don’t you?” I whispered.
Vivienne smiled, thinking she had won. “Everything has a price, Damian. You of all people should know that.”
“You’re right,” I said, pulling my hand out of my coat pocket. “Everything has a price. And yours just came due.”
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I held up my phone. The screen was illuminated, showing an active call line connected directly to the State Police Homicide Division and the District Attorney’s office, who had been listening to every single word through the house audio system Marco had patched in ten minutes ago.
Vivienne’s smile instantly froze.
