Chapter 9 - Victoria's VersionRichard confronted Victoria.
She didn't deny entering the room.
“Yes.”
“You found Dad alive.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I called for help.”
“Thirteen minutes later.”
“I didn't have my phone.”
“Mom's phone was missing.”
“Yes.”
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she recorded me.”
Richard struggled to control his anger.
“What happened during those thirteen minutes?”
Victoria cried.
“Robert grabbed me.”
Richard stared.
“He could barely breathe.”
“He grabbed my wrist.”
“And?”
“He begged me not to call.”
Richard frowned.
“What?”
“He said, ‘Let me go.’”
Richard stared.
Victoria continued:
“I thought he meant let him die.”
“Why would Dad want that?”
“He was humiliated.”
“By what?”
Victoria shook her head.
“He told me Eleanor had been drugging him.”
Richard felt sick.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“He said she had done it before.”
Richard remembered Margaret.
It wasn't the first time.
Victoria continued:
“He said he couldn't live like that anymore.”
“So you watched him die?”
“No.”
“I called 911 anyway.”
“After thirteen minutes.”
Victoria cried harder.
“I was terrified.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor was watching me.”
Richard frowned.
“She couldn't move.”
“She could look.”
Victoria whispered:
“And the way she looked at me…”
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
Victoria covered her face.
Richard waited.
Finally:
“Robert kissed me.”
Silence.
“When?”
“Two weeks earlier.”
Richard stared.
“I pushed him away.”
“Did Mom see?”
“Yes.”
Richard understood the hatred.
Eleanor believed Victoria had seduced Robert.
Victoria believed Eleanor had endangered Robert.
Robert had harassed Victoria.
Everyone had pieces.
No one had truth.
Richard asked:
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you withhold help intentionally?”
Victoria hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“I don't know.”
Richard stared.
“I was angry.”
“At him?”
“At both of them.”
“For what?”
“For dragging me into their marriage.”
She looked at Richard.
“And because I knew if Robert died, Eleanor would blame me.”
“So you waited.”
Tears ran down her face.
“Yes.”
Richard closed his eyes.
She had not poisoned Robert.
But she had delayed calling for help.
That delay may have killed him.
Victoria whispered:
“I've hated myself every day.”
Richard looked at her.
“And you turned that hatred on my mother.”
Victoria didn't deny it.
“Yes.”
Richard finally understood why Eleanor had become Victoria's target.
Not inheritance.
Not conspiracy.
Guilt.
Each woman saw the other as responsible for Robert's death.
And both, in different ways, were right.
But something still bothered him.
Margaret said Robert woke up.
Victoria said Robert spoke.
The medical report said his cardiac arrest occurred later.
There was a missing period.
Richard asked:
“Where was Emily?”
Victoria frowned.
“What?”
“The night Dad died.”
“I don't know.”
Emily claimed she wasn't at the mansion.
Richard checked gate records.
At 10:24 p.m., six minutes after Robert collapsed, Emily's car entered the estate.
Richard stared at the screen.
May you like
Emily had lied.
Again.
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