Chapter 15 - VICTORIA’S FIRST LIEVictoria refused to speak.
Not in the corridor.
Not when agents separated her from Vance.
Not when reporters screamed her name outside Montgomery Holdings.
Not when Aria stood three feet away and asked again.
Why did my father marry you?
Victoria only looked at her with eyes Aria had never seen before.
Not soft.
Never soft.
But haunted.
That scared Aria more than hatred.
By evening, Vance was in federal custody, Celeste was back under medical care, Richard’s testimony was sealed for trial preparation, and the board had voted to suspend Victoria’s authority pending investigation.
Aria should have felt victorious.
Instead, she felt like someone had lifted a floorboard beneath her childhood and revealed another staircase down.
Richard was quiet when Aria returned to the hospital.
Too quiet.
He looked out the window as the city lights came alive.
“You heard what Vance said,” Aria said.
“Yes.”
“Was it true?”
Richard closed his eyes.
Aria’s throat tightened.
“Dad.”
He turned toward her slowly.
“I married Victoria because she was pregnant.”
The room seemed to lose sound.
Aria blinked.
“What?”
Ethan, standing near the door, went very still.
Richard’s voice was rough. “She came to me three months after your mother died. She had worked with a consulting firm we hired for the hotels. She said the child was mine.”
Aria gripped the chair.
“Was it?”
“No.”
The answer came like a stone dropping through glass.
“I didn’t know that then,” Richard said. “I was grieving. Drinking too much. Working too much. I had made mistakes. Victoria knew enough about those months to make the lie believable.”
Aria could barely process the words.
“A child?”
Richard’s eyes filled with pain.
“She claimed she lost the baby after we married.”
Aria sat down.
Victoria had built her entire place in their lives on a pregnancy that never existed.
A dead child as key.
A grief used to enter a grieving house.
“Why didn’t you leave her when you found out?”
“By then she had documents. Photos. Recordings. Enough to embarrass the company and hurt you. I thought I could manage her.”
Aria let out a hollow laugh.
Men always thought they could manage women like Victoria until everyone else was paying the price.
Richard accepted the judgment in her silence.
“I failed you,” he said.
Aria looked at him.
A week ago, she would have rushed to comfort him. To tell him no. To protect his feelings because hers had been trained to wait outside.
Now she loved him enough to be honest.
“Yes,” she said.
Richard flinched.
Aria’s eyes filled. “You failed me when you married someone you didn’t trust. You failed me when you let her isolate me. You failed me when you thought secrets were safer than truth.”
He nodded, tears slipping into the lines of his face.
“I know.”
“But,” Aria whispered, “you didn’t stop loving me.”
“No. Never.”
“Then don’t lie to me again.”
“I won’t.”
Ethan looked away, giving them privacy.
But Aria saw his expression.
Respect again.
Maybe sorrow too.
Later, when Richard slept, Aria found Ethan in the hospital chapel. A real one this time. Small, quiet, with stained glass and electric candles.
He stood near the back, hands in his pockets.
“You heard everything,” Aria said.
“Yes.”
“You probably think my family is disgusting.”
“I think your family was targeted by people who knew exactly where the cracks were.”
Aria leaned against the pew beside him.
“My father had cracks.”
“So did mine.”
She looked at him.
Ethan rarely mentioned his father.
“He built CrossShield after my mother was killed in a robbery,” Ethan said. “He became obsessed with control. Cameras, guards, armored cars. He taught us safety and fear so closely we confused them.”
“And Daniel?”
“Daniel rebelled by trusting everyone.”
“And you rebelled by trusting no one?”
His mouth almost curved.
“Something like that.”
They stood quietly.
Aria was exhausted, but near Ethan the exhaustion did not feel dangerous. It simply existed.
“You saved my father,” she said.
“He saved himself. He left enough breadcrumbs.”
“You followed them.”
“So did you.”
Aria looked at him.
Something unspoken moved between them.
Not a promise.
Not yet.
A question.
Before either could step toward it, Marcus appeared at the chapel entrance.
“Sorry,” he said. “Victoria is asking for Aria.”
Aria went cold.
“Where?”
“Federal holding. She says she’ll only talk to you.”
Ethan’s answer was immediate. “No.”
Aria looked at him.
“Ethan.”
“She manipulates every room she enters.”
“Then I won’t enter alone.”
Victoria Montgomery sat behind reinforced glass in a private interview room, wearing no jewelry, no makeup, no smile.
For the first time, she looked older than her cruelty.
Aria sat across from her.
Ethan stood behind Aria.
Victoria’s eyes flicked to him. “Still hiding behind men?”
Aria folded her hands.
“No. Choosing witnesses.”
Victoria looked almost amused.
Then she leaned forward.
“If you want to destroy Black Rose,” she said, “you need me.”
Aria’s stomach tightened.
“Why would I believe you?”
May you like
Victoria’s eyes darkened.
“Because Gerald Vance was never the man at the top.”
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