Chapter 6 - Victoria’s VersionBy noon, Victoria Hale was crying on television.
Not real crying.
Ethan knew the difference now.
She stood outside her father’s townhouse in a simple ivory coat, hair pulled back, engagement ring still on her finger, face pale in a way that cameras loved. Her mother stood behind her wearing pearls. Preston Hale stood to her right, one hand on her shoulder like a man presenting a wounded daughter to the nation.
Reporters crowded the sidewalk.
Victoria looked directly into the nearest camera.
“Last night should have been the happiest night of my life,” she said, voice trembling perfectly. “Instead, my fiancé was targeted by a cruel and calculated deception.”
Ethan watched from Olivia’s hospital room with the sound low.
Lucy sat beside the bed, eating toast because Nora had ordered food and then stood over her until she took three bites.
Olivia slept fitfully.
Victoria continued.
“A woman from Ethan’s past, someone who has made repeated financial demands against my family, sent her daughter into our wedding with stolen documents and lies. I have compassion for a sick woman and a confused child. But I will not allow my family to be blackmailed.”
Lucy stopped chewing.
Ethan reached for the remote.
“No,” Lucy said.
Her voice was small, but hard.
“I want to hear her lie.”
On the screen, a reporter asked, “Miss Hale, did you sign checks to Olivia Bennett?”
Victoria looked wounded by the question.
“My family has quietly assisted many people over the years. Any support given was charitable. It was never hush money.”
Another reporter shouted, “Is Lucy Bennett Ethan Pierce’s daughter?”
Victoria’s mouth tightened before she caught herself.
“That is a deeply private matter. And frankly, I find it disturbing that a child is being used in this way.”
Lucy’s toast bent in her hand.
“Mom didn’t use me.”
“I know,” Ethan said.
“She’s making everyone think I’m bad.”
“She’s trying.”
Lucy looked at him.
“Will it work?”
Before Ethan could answer, Nora did.
“Not if I’m alive.”
She stood at the foot of Olivia’s bed with two phones, a laptop, and the expression of a woman who enjoyed professional violence when it was deserved.
“Victoria’s statement creates several opportunities,” Nora said.
“Opportunities?” Ethan repeated.
“She publicly admitted financial support. She suggested ongoing contact. She accused Olivia of extortion. That means discovery becomes delicious.”
Lucy frowned. “What’s discovery?”
“It’s when liars have to give us their emails.”
Lucy considered that.
“I like discovery.”
“So do I,” Nora said.
Ethan almost smiled.
Then his phone rang.
His mother.
He stepped into the hallway before answering.
“Mom.”
Grace Pierce did not begin with hello.
“Tell me this is not true.”
Ethan leaned against the wall.
“Which part?”
“The child. Olivia. Victoria. All of it.”
He closed his eyes.
“The child is real. Olivia is alive. Victoria signed the checks.”
Grace inhaled sharply.
For years, his mother had blamed Olivia without speaking her name often. She had watched Ethan collapse after the breakup. She had hated the woman who, she believed, had lied and disappeared.
“Ethan,” Grace whispered. “What have we done?”
He looked through the window into the room.
Lucy was now talking quietly with Nora, pointing at something on the laptop. Olivia slept between them like the fragile center of a storm.
“We believed the wrong person.”
Grace was silent.
Then she said, “I want to come.”
“Not yet.”
“She may be my granddaughter.”
“She is your granddaughter.”
“You don’t have proof.”
“I have enough.”
Grace’s voice broke. “Does she know about me?”
“No.”
“Does she hate us?”
Ethan watched Lucy laugh once at something Nora said. The sound was so unexpected it made his chest ache.
“She doesn’t know us well enough to hate us yet.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
He ended the call gently after promising to update her.
When he returned, Olivia was awake again.
She looked weaker.
“Victoria went public,” Ethan said.
“I know.”
“You heard?”
Olivia turned her face toward the TV. “She always did like an audience.”
Ethan sat beside her.
“I need to ask you something difficult.”
Olivia’s eyes met his.
“You want to know if I ever took money willingly.”
“No.”
She blinked.
“I want to know how to protect Lucy from whatever Victoria does next.”
Olivia’s lips trembled.
That was when Ethan understood.
There was more.
Always more.
Olivia looked at Lucy, then back at him.
“Victoria knows Lucy has something.”
Lucy stiffened.
Ethan turned.
“What does she have?”
Lucy’s face closed.
Olivia whispered, “The necklace.”
Lucy’s hand went immediately to her collar.
Beneath the pale blue sweatshirt, a thin chain disappeared against her skin.
Ethan had not noticed it before.
Lucy shook her head. “Mom.”
“He needs to know.”
“No.”
“Lucy.”
The child’s eyes filled. “You promised I didn’t have to show anyone.”
Ethan held up both hands.
“You don’t have to show me anything.”
Olivia’s eyes begged him to understand.
“It belonged to Ethan’s father,” she said.
Ethan froze.
“My father?”
Olivia nodded.
“He gave it to me the week before he died. He said if anything happened, you would know what it meant.”
Ethan’s pulse changed.
His father, Raymond Pierce, had died ten years ago after a sudden heart attack, three months before Olivia disappeared.
Ethan had inherited debt, a struggling company, and a locked office drawer full of old regrets.
“What necklace?” he asked.
Lucy’s hand tightened around the chain.
Slowly, she pulled it free.
A small gold pendant lay in her palm.
It was shaped like a compass.
Ethan stopped breathing.
His father had worn that compass for twenty years.
It had vanished after the funeral.
Inside, engraved in tiny letters, was the Pierce family motto.
Find what they hide.
Victoria had not chosen Ethan because she loved him.
May you like
She had chosen him because his father had hidden something.
And Lucy had been wearing the key around her neck for nine years.
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