“Can she?”
“Not if the evidence establishes fraud, coercion, and criminal concealment. But the process will be ugly.”
Victoria laughed under her breath.
“There. You hear that? They want to tear apart everything your father built.”
“My father built ships,” Julian said. “You built a prison.”
Victoria slapped him.
The sound cracked through the ballroom.
Elena moved instantly, placing herself between them. Julian’s face had turned to the side, a red mark rising along his cheek.
Victoria’s hand remained suspended.
“I made you,” she whispered.
“No,” Julian said.
He turned back toward her.
“You made me afraid of you.”
For the first time, Victoria looked old.
Not weak. Not repentant. But old in a way Elena had never seen before, as if the years she had used to command others had finally returned to collect their debt.
The recording device clicked again.
A new voice emerged.
It belonged to Victoria’s former financial officer, a man named Arthur Vale.
“I told you the insurance claim would attract attention.”
Victoria’s recorded voice answered, “Then make the attention useful. Blame the captain.”
Arthur said, “He has children.”
“Everyone has children. That is not my problem.”
Elena closed her eyes briefly.
That was the hidden truth she had not yet played for Julian: not only had Daniel died, but three other families had been destroyed to protect Victoria’s accounts. Their names were in the ledger. Their signatures had been forged. Their homes had been taken when the company declared them responsible for losses.
One of those names belonged to the father of a woman standing near the cake table.
The young woman stepped forward.
“My name is Nora Vale.”
Arthur’s voice on the recording faltered.
Nora held up her phone. “My father was Captain Elias Vale. You told everyone he was drunk when the ship went down.”
Victoria looked at her with no recognition.
