Chapter 6 - The Affair Behind the Boardroom
The affair explained intimacy.
It did not explain everything.
Daniel watched months of archived clips.
Victoria and Adrian meeting in the library when Daniel traveled.
Adrian entering through the service garage.
Victoria giving him documents.
Adrian photographing trust records.
One recording contained clear audio.
VICTORIA: NorthBridge closes the minute I control the votes.
ADRIAN: And Crestwell?
VICTORIA: We settle the audit.
ADRIAN: You cannot settle an audit.
VICTORIA: Then replace the people running it.
Adrian laughed.
ADRIAN: That sounds like your father.
Victoria’s face changed.
VICTORIA: Don’t compare me to him.
That mattered.
Thomas Ashford had favored Daniel openly.
Daniel received the CEO grooming.
Daniel sat beside him at lender meetings.
Daniel was introduced as “the future.”
Victoria received respectable titles but never succession.
Daniel had always known she resented it.
He had never realized how deeply.
Another recording:
VICTORIA: I gave that company twenty years.
ADRIAN: And Daniel got forty-six percent.
VICTORIA: Sophie got more than I did.
ADRIAN: Sophie is seven.
VICTORIA: Exactly.
Daniel stopped the video.
“She resented a child.”
Rebecca, watching with him, replied:
“She resented what Sophie represented.”
“What?”
“Your father’s decision that the future belonged through you, not her.”
Daniel looked at the paused image of his sister.
Understanding motive did not reduce responsibility.
But it made the betrayal more human.
More terrible.
Maria came into the room.
“I should have told you.”
“You kept the videos.”
“I did not understand the company part.”
“You saw them together.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me they were having an affair?”
Maria gave him a direct look.
“Because you did not like hearing things about Victoria.”
Daniel almost objected.
Then remembered.
Three years earlier Maria told him Victoria had been cruel to a junior housekeeper.
Daniel dismissed it as personality conflict.
Two years earlier she warned him Victoria was opening his father’s desk after Thomas became ill.
Daniel said his sister had every right.
Last year Maria mentioned Victoria asked strange questions about Sophie’s trust.
Daniel told her legal matters were none of the household staff’s concern.
He had trained Maria not to bring him uncomfortable truths.
“I’m sorry.”
Maria nodded.
“Good.”
Not absolution.
Just acknowledgment.
The independent board committee suspended Adrian as CFO that afternoon after receiving the videos and payment records.
He denied fraud.
He also denied the affair until shown footage.
Then his attorney stopped allowing interviews.
NorthBridge announced it was “reviewing the transaction.”
Daniel knew that meant the buyer was preparing distance.
Victoria’s attorneys attacked the security evidence.
They argued Daniel had violated her privacy by retaining household recordings.
Rebecca answered calmly:
“Common-area cameras disclosed to residents and staff are not secret bedroom surveillance.”
Victoria’s criminal exposure regarding Sophie remained under investigation.
Daniel obtained a temporary order restricting her contact with Sophie.
But his legal problems did not disappear.
Victoria’s lawyer filed a petition anyway.
Not the original draft.
A revised one.
It argued Daniel’s household had repeatedly failed to maintain medication supplies before Victoria’s conduct was discovered.
It cited pharmacy refill gaps.
Doctor notes.
Sophie’s statements that Daniel frightened her when angry.
Victoria’s own wrongdoing was described as an “ill-advised attempt to investigate.”
Daniel stared at Rebecca.
“She is still trying.”
“She has to.”
“Why?”
“Because if she abandons the trust fight, her leverage disappears.”
The petition sought Daniel’s temporary suspension as trustee while the court investigated.
Rebecca said:
“This is not frivolous.”
Daniel stared.
“How?”
“Because some refill gaps are real.”
Maria handled medication but Daniel, as parent, remained responsible.
Pharmacy records showed two delayed refills over the previous year.
Neither harmed Sophie.
But they existed.
And Daniel’s recorded temper could matter.
“You told me Victoria manufactured this.”
“She manufactured part of it. That does not erase facts she exploited.”
Daniel hated that answer.
The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing.
Sophie might require a neutral child advocate.
Daniel could not simply tell the court, “Victoria is worse.”
He had to prove he was fit.
That night he attended his first parenting therapy session voluntarily.
The therapist asked:
“What are you afraid of losing?”
“My daughter.”
“And the company?”
“Yes.”
“Which scares you more?”
Daniel answered immediately.
“Sophie.”
The therapist waited.
Daniel added:
“But I’m ashamed that I had to think about it.”
When he returned home, Maria was waiting.
She held a pharmacy receipt.
“What is it?”
“I remembered something.”
The refill gaps.
Maria had gone to the pharmacy on both delayed dates.
She had been told the prescription was already collected.
“By whom?”
The receipt showed an authorized family pickup.
Signature:
May you like
Victoria Ashford.
Victoria had been interfering with Sophie’s medication far longer than seventeen days.
