Chapter 15 - The Woman in Victor’s Office
The woman in the footage was not Evelyn.
High-resolution enhancement showed differences.
Same coat.
Same silver hair.
Same height.
But the woman’s left hand carried a ring Evelyn never wore.
Naomi recognized it.
“Sofia Vale.”
Claire frowned.
“Who?”
“Victor’s executive assistant.”
Sofia had resigned two months after Adrian’s death and moved to Arizona.
She had sometimes been mistaken for Evelyn from behind.
Victor had used that resemblance.
They found Sofia in Scottsdale.
At first she refused to speak.
Then Daniel showed her the cabin recording.
Sofia cried.
“I didn’t know Adrian was alive.”
“What did Victor tell you?” Claire asked.
“That there had been an accident. That Adrian had violated protocol and we had to fix the cancellation record before regulators saw it.”
“You used Adrian’s signing certificate?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know that was illegal?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“Why did you do it?”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“Victor and I were together.”
Claire understood.
An affair.
Not against Claire.
Against Victor’s own wife, whom he had divorced quietly two years earlier after blaming “different priorities.”
Sofia continued.
“He said Adrian was going to fire both of us.”
“Why you?”
“I processed vendor payments.”
Naomi leaned forward.
“You knew about the shell companies.”
“I knew invoices were being approved without work. I didn’t know where the money went.”
“Did Adrian know?”
“Yes.”
“Did Victor ask you to create anything else?”
Sofia nodded.
“Naomi’s termination notice.”
Claire’s pulse rose.
“The emergency contact amendment?”
“Yes.”
“The insurance records?”
“I prepared the packet.”
Every major document around Adrian’s death had been manipulated through Victor and Sofia.
Daniel asked the key question.
“Did Victor tell you what happened in the car?”
“No.”
“Did he say why the ambulance was delayed?”
Sofia looked down.
“He called me at 11:58.”
Fourteen minutes after impact.
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘If Adrian survives, everything is over.’”
Claire’s heart pounded.
“What else?”
“He told me to get to headquarters.”
That testimony was devastating.
But Sofia wanted immunity.
Prosecutors would decide.
Victor learned she was cooperating within hours.
He retaliated commercially.
Mercer Velocity announced the Kronos sale vote would occur in forty-eight hours.
He also moved to settle Naomi’s unauthorized-access matter aggressively, insisting the company had suffered millions in damages.
Claire understood the message.
Stop, or Naomi burns.
Then another blow.
The guardian ad litem issued an interim report.
It did not call Claire unfit.
It did criticize her for exposing Leo to adult legal disputes and using information he supplied in active litigation.
The judge ordered that Leo not be questioned about Adrian’s evidence except through appropriate child-sensitive procedures.
Claire accepted it.
She should have protected that boundary herself.
That night she apologized to him.
“I made you part of things you shouldn’t have had to carry.”
Leo sat cross-legged on his bed.
“I wanted to help.”
“I know.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
“Then why can’t I help?”
“Because being able to help doesn’t mean adults should ask you to.”
He considered that.
“Dad asked me.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
There was no way around that truth.
Adrian had placed part of his fail-safe inside a child’s memory.
He had trusted Leo’s love.
And burdened him with it.
“That was one of Dad’s mistakes,” Claire said.
Leo looked at the cracked helmet on his shelf.
“He made mistakes too?”
“Yes.”
That seemed to comfort him.
Maybe heroes were easier to love when allowed to be human.
At midnight Daniel called.
The court denied Claire’s request to stop the Kronos shareholder vote.
She had not yet proven the voting proxy invalid.
The sale would proceed.
If approved, closing could occur rapidly once regulatory conditions were satisfied.
Victor was hours from converting control into billions.
Then Ortiz called.
“We found Cal’s original 911 call.”
Claire sat up.
“You said it came at 12:05.”
“It did.”
“But?”
“It was not Cal’s first attempt.”
At 11:49, six minutes after the crash, Cal dialed emergency services.
The call connected.
Then disconnected after two seconds.
Phone records showed another call immediately afterward.
Victor to Cal.
Duration: seventeen minutes.
“Victor stopped him,” Claire whispered.
“We need Cal to say that.”
Cal still refused.
Then Claire received a text from him personally.
No anonymous number.
No intermediary.
I’ll talk. But not at the station. Victor watches everyone.
Then:
There is one piece of evidence he never found.
It’s still inside the wreck.
Claire stared at the message.
The wreck sat under court protection in Mercer Velocity’s secure warehouse.
May you like
Victor’s warehouse.
And the sale vote was tomorrow night.
