Chapter 2: What Victoria Saw on That Phone
I walked downstairs slowly.
Victoria was refilling her champagne glass.
Julian was stretched across my leather sofa like he owned it.
He probably thought he did.
"Daniel." My mother smiled.
"Come have a drink.
We were just celebrating."
"Celebrating what?"
She waved her hand.
"The future.
The business.
Things finally moving in the right direction."
Julian said nothing.
But his jaw tightened.
I sat down across from them and kept my voice completely flat.
"I saw the transfer documents tonight."
The champagne glass stopped halfway to Victoria's lips.
"Those were necessary," she said carefully.
"You were gone.
Someone had to protect the assets."
"With my forged signature."
Julian finally looked at me.
"You were unreachable for weeks at a time.
We made decisions.
That's what family does."
"And Maya?" I said.
"Was that also a family decision?"
The room went very quiet.
Victoria set her glass down.
Something shifted behind her eyes — not guilt, not yet.
Something colder.
Calculation.
"Maya is fragile," she said.
"She exaggerates."
I nodded slowly.
Then my phone buzzed once on the table.
I turned it face up so they could both see the screen.
It was a message from a name Victoria recognized.
Her face went pale for the first time all evening.
"You should have checked," I said quietly, "who else I called before I came downstairs."
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What Daniel had already set in motion before he walked into that room is what changes everything.
Click the link below to read the full story — and find out what Victoria saw on that phone.
