CHAP 5 — Victoria Learns the Mansion Has an Owner
Victoria was arrested in pearls.
I wish I were a better person and could say that detail gave me no satisfaction.
It did.
The police came the next morning with hospital reports, my statement, the bruise patterns, and security footage from the mansion staircase. Victoria had forgotten the cameras because she never imagined they could belong to anyone but her son.
The footage showed enough.
Me stepping back.
Victoria advancing.
Her hand striking my shoulder.
My body falling.
Her face afterward.
Not horror.
Annoyance.
She did not run for help. She did not call 911. She looked down the stairs and said, “Audrey?”
Then, when I did not answer, she stepped over the broken vase and called Dominic.
Not emergency services.
Dominic.
By the time officers arrived, she had already rehearsed.
“My daughter-in-law slipped,” she said, one hand pressed to her chest. “She has always been clumsy and emotional.”
An officer asked why she did not call an ambulance immediately.
Victoria blinked.
“I thought she was being dramatic.”
That sentence followed her into the report like a curse.
Dominic arrived at the mansion while officers were still there. His hair was messy, his shirt half-buttoned, his face pale from a night without sleep.
“Mom?” he said.
Victoria turned on him.
“What is Larkspur Meridian?”
Dominic froze.
The officer looked between them.
Victoria’s voice rose.
“They say we have thirty days to vacate unless Audrey authorizes occupancy. They say the vehicles are company property. They say your corporate cards don’t work.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Not now.”
“Not now?” she shrieked. “This is our home!”
Sophia stepped through the open front door then.
“No, Mrs. Vance. It is not.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“You.”
Sophia ignored him and handed documents to the officers, then to Dominic.
“Notice of asset control. Notice of termination of unauthorized use. Notice of pending divorce. Notice of protective order. Notice of corporate investigation.”
Victoria snatched at one paper.
Sophia pulled it back.
“Careful. You are already facing assault charges.”
Victoria looked like she might slap her.
The officer shifted closer.
Dominic read the first page.
His hands began to shake.
“Audrey owns sixty-two percent?”
Sophia corrected him.
“Her trust owns controlling interest. Audrey controls the trust.”
Victoria gripped the staircase railing.
“That little orphan?”
Sophia’s eyes cooled.
“That little orphan just removed you from a mansion you never owned.”
Dominic whispered, “Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“I need to see her.”
“No.”
“She was pregnant.”
Sophia’s expression did not change.
“And you were with Paige.”
That landed.
Not because he cared about fidelity.
Because his shame had witnesses.
Victoria began crying when officers asked her to come with them.
“My son needs me,” she sobbed.
Sophia looked at Dominic.
“He needed a mother who didn’t push his wife down a staircase.”
Dominic did not defend Victoria.
That was the first time she looked truly afraid.
Not when police came.
When her son failed to save her.
May you like
Greed had raised him.
Now greed had no loyalty left.
