Chapter 16 - The Stepmother’s Desperate Bargain
Rain lashed against the reinforced glass partition of the visitor booth at the Western Women’s Correctional Facility.
Victoria sat on the other side, clad in a bright orange jumpsuit. Her hands were cuffed to the steel table, her face pale, stripped of the heavy makeup and arrogance she had flaunted when dragging Lily around by an iron chain. A fresh purple bruise blossomed across her cheekbone—prison had not been kind to her.
When Arthur sat down and picked up the heavy phone receiver, Victoria burst into a ragged, hysterical laugh.
"Look at you, old man," she sneered, though her voice wavered with panic. "Come to watch me rot? Or did you finally figure out that you’re playing chess against a ghost?"
"Chloe," Arthur said simply, the single word dropping like a lead weight between them.
Victoria’s smirk instantly vanished. Her eyes darted toward the guard standing by the door, sheer terror replacing her venom.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered frantically.
"Chloe was on Route 9," Arthur pressed his palm against the glass, his voice vibrating with absolute fury. "Chloe drove the vehicle that ran Rachel off the road. Daniel didn't plan the murder. Daniel didn't have the brains or the stomach for it. It was Chloe and Julian. Talk, Victoria. Talk, and I’ll have you transferred to a minimum-security facility in upstate New York where you won't be stabbed in your sleep."
Victoria swallowed hard, her chest heaving. She leaned as close to the glass as the chains permitted.
"Daniel was an idiot," Victoria hissed through the phone. "He owed Julian ten million dollars. Julian told him he’d erase the debt and give him five million more if he married Rachel, broke her will, and found the trust documents. But Rachel was too smart. She caught on. She moved the codes."
"And the torture?" Arthur’s voice cracked. "Why the chain around Lily’s neck? Why starve a ten-year-old child?!"
Tears of genuine terror leaked down Victoria’s hollow cheeks. "Because Chloe told us to! Chloe said if Lily broke completely, you would collapse from grief. If Arthur Vance was hospitalized with a broken heart, Julian would take full conservatorship of the estate and the trust! We were just following the script, Arthur! Chloe promised us twenty million and a private jet to Costa Rica once the girl signed away her inheritance rights at eighteen!"
"Where is Chloe now?" Arthur demanded.
May you like
Victoria smiled, a sickening, broken grimace. "Where do you think? Sovereign Trust opens its private vault wing in two hours. And she has the master key."
***
