Chapter 7 - VICTORIA’S VERSIONEthan drove directly to his parents’ house.
Victoria was packing.
Not for vacation.
For escape.
Two suitcases sat beside the staircase.
Her passport lay on the kitchen island.
When she saw us enter with Richard and Michael Carver behind us, she stopped.
For once, Victoria Ashford had nowhere to retreat.
Ethan placed the Canadian photograph on the counter.
Her face changed instantly.
“Where did you get that?”
“So he’s alive.”
She didn’t answer.
“Mom.”
“Apparently.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
“But you recognized him.”
“I was married into this family for nearly forty years. Of course I recognized him.”
Michael stepped forward.
“You told me he was dead.”
Victoria stared at him.
“I believed he was.”
“You saw him after the boating accident.”
Richard’s voice shook.
“Didn’t you?”
Victoria slowly sat down.
“Yes.”
The word released decades of tension.
Ethan looked furious.
“You let Dad mourn his brother.”
“I was trying to keep him alive.”
“By telling everyone he was dead?”
“You have no idea what your grandfather was capable of.”
“Then tell us.”
Victoria looked around the kitchen.
At her husband.
Her biological son.
The man who had fathered him.
And me.
The woman she had spent years trying to push away.
Finally, she began.
Charles Ashford discovered Thomas planned to expose him.
The boating accident had indeed been staged.
Thomas escaped.
Victoria helped arrange it.
But Charles suspected the truth.
“He told me if Thomas surfaced, Rebecca and the baby would disappear.”
My skin went cold.
“Disappear?”
Victoria looked at me.
“Your grandfather never made empty threats.”
She corrected herself.
“Biological grandfather.”
I stiffened.
She continued.
“I convinced Linda to leave. I gave her money because she had nothing.”
“Why didn’t Thomas go with them?”
“He was trying to get the financial evidence.”
“From Michael?”
“Yes.”
Carver nodded.
“I gave him everything I had.”
Victoria looked toward him bitterly.
“And then you disappeared too.”
“I had a career and a family.”
“You had excuses.”
Carver accepted the insult silently.
Richard asked, “What happened on December 29?”
Victoria looked down.
“Thomas called me.”
“From where?”
“New York.”
“He said Charles had found him. He was terrified. He told me he couldn’t reach Rebecca.”
My throat tightened.
“She was dying.”
“I know.”
“What did you tell him?”
“To run.”
“Where?”
“Canada.”
“So the photograph is real.”
“Yes.”
“But why didn’t he contact anyone for twenty years?”
“I don’t know.”
Her answer came too quickly.
Ethan heard it.
“So there’s more.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“Mom.”
She looked at him.
“You always thought I hated Claire because of money.”
“I knew it wasn’t just money.”
“I was terrified of her.”
I stared at her.
“Of me?”
“Of what you represented.”
She stood.
“When Ethan brought you home and said your name, I nearly fainted.”
“I remember.”
“I called Linda that night. She begged me not to tell you.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas was still alive.”
Silence.
“You knew?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“He contacted me seven years ago.”
Richard grabbed the counter.
“Seven years?”
“I received a letter.”
“Where is it?”
“I burned it.”
Richard stared at his wife with disbelief.
“You knew my brother was alive for seven years and never told me?”
“He demanded secrecy.”
“He was my brother.”
“He believed Charles’s associates were still searching for the financial records.”
“Charles was dead by then.”
“Yes. His partners weren’t.”
Ethan pointed at the photograph.
“Why is Thomas contacting people now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did his letter say?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Mom.”
“He said he had learned Claire and Ethan were together.”
I felt sick.
“When?”
“Before your wedding.”
“You mean another person knew and said nothing?”
“He told me to stop the marriage.”
I almost screamed.
“And you tried by insulting me?”
“I couldn’t tell you the truth without exposing him.”
“So humiliating me was easier.”
Victoria’s voice rose.
“I was trying to make you leave!”
“And when that failed?”
“I begged Linda.”
“And when that failed?”
“I thought…”
She stopped.
“What?”
Her face crumbled.
“I thought maybe the relationship wouldn’t last.”
Ethan stared at her.
“We’ve been married five years.”
“I know.”
“So you spent five years treating Claire like garbage because you were afraid of a secret you helped create.”
Victoria looked toward me.
For perhaps the first time, there was no superiority in her eyes.
Only shame.
“Yes.”
I didn’t forgive her.
Understanding someone’s reasons does not erase what they did.
“You dragged me across a ballroom.”
“I know.”
“In front of three hundred people.”
“I know.”
“You blamed me for something your family did before I was born.”
She lowered her head.
“Yes.”
Richard spoke quietly.
“I want Thomas’s letter.”
“I burned it.”
“No.”
Victoria looked at him.
“You never burn important papers.”
He walked toward the study.
She stepped in front of him.
“Richard.”
He stopped.
“That’s where it is.”
Her expression answered him.
Richard opened the wall safe.
Inside were documents, jewelry boxes and folders.
At the bottom was a red envelope.
Richard opened it.
Thomas’s letter was inside.
Victoria had lied again.
But the letter wasn’t merely proof that Thomas was alive.
It contained an address.
A small town in Vermont.
And one final line.
If Claire ever learns the truth, bring her to me. There is something her mother never knew.
I looked at Ethan.
“We’re going.”
Victoria grabbed my wrist.
“No.”
I looked down at her hand.
She immediately released me.
“Why?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Because if Thomas tells you what happened that winter, you’ll hate me more than you already do.”
I met her eyes.
May you like
“That is no longer a reason to keep me ignorant.”
And the next morning, Ethan and I drove north to meet a man who had officially been dead for twenty years.
