Chapter 10 - A Sister’s Reason
David asked Victoria to meet.
Lena objected.
Maya objected.
Claire called it stupid.
David did it anyway.
They met in the indoor riding arena with cameras running and attorneys nearby.
Victoria arrived alone.
She stood beneath the high beams where rain tapped softly against the roof.
“You finally understand,” she said.
“The Ridgeway Agreement.”
Her expression changed.
“So Samuel talked.”
“He should have years ago.”
Victoria smiled.
“Mother made sure he didn’t.”
David took a breath.
“Father promised you equal control.”
“Yes.”
“And Mother protected me after I moved company money.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“I found the transfer.”
“Why didn’t you confront me?”
“I confronted her.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“She told me you were under pressure. That you had repaid it. That one mistake shouldn’t destroy your life.”
Her eyes glistened.
“You know what she said when I asked whether one mistake should destroy mine?”
David said nothing.
“She said mine wasn’t one mistake.”
That sounded like Eleanor.
Victoria laughed quietly.
“She was right, of course.”
David looked at her.
“You stole six hundred thousand before she died.”
“I took compensation I believed I was owed.”
“That is theft with better vocabulary.”
Her smile vanished.
“And you borrowed three hundred thousand without board approval.”
“I repaid it.”
“You always get a second sentence.”
“What?”
“Every explanation about you has a second sentence. David misused company money, but he repaid it. David drank too much, but he was grieving. David neglected paperwork, but he was raising Noah.”
Her voice cracked.
“When it was me, there was never a second sentence.”
David felt the accusation land because part of it was true.
“You were treated unfairly.”
Victoria blinked.
She had expected denial.
David continued.
“Father shouldn’t have made secret promises. Mother shouldn’t have hidden my misconduct. I should have taken responsibility.”
Victoria stared at him.
Then she whispered, “You think admitting that changes anything?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Because you still stole millions.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You still tried to mortgage protected land. You bought Harold Penn. You used Halcyon to position yourself to take Mercer Ridge.”
“You inherited control.”
“I worked here twenty years.”
“So did I!”
Her shout echoed.
David waited.
Victoria’s breathing became uneven.
For a moment they were not CEO and CFO.
They were two children fighting for a dead parent’s approval.
Then David asked, “Did you send someone into Noah’s room?”
“No.”
“Did Grant?”
Victoria hesitated.
The smallest delay.
David saw it.
“You don’t know.”
She looked away.
“Grant has become difficult.”
“Because he took Mother’s recorder?”
“How do you know that?”
David smiled.
Power shifted.
Victoria recovered.
“Do you have it?”
“A copy.”
She closed her eyes.
“What did she say?”
“You know what you said.”
“I mean afterward.”
David frowned.
“There was nothing afterward.”
Victoria looked genuinely surprised.
“The tape ended?”
“Yes.”
Then she laughed.
Not mockingly.
With disbelief.
“You still don’t have the second cassette.”
David’s pulse quickened.
“What second cassette?”
Victoria stepped back.
“Ask Maya.”
David’s head turned toward the observation booth.
Maya stood behind glass.
Victoria saw his reaction.
“There,” she whispered. “That face.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
“She worked for Mother.”
“She worked for more than Mother.”
Victoria walked toward the arena exit.
David said, “Where is the Ridgeway Agreement?”
She stopped.
“I don’t have it.”
“Grant?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who took Noah’s key?”
Victoria looked back.
“For once, David, your enemy and mine may be the same person.”
Then she left.
David entered the booth.
Maya did not wait.
“There was a second cassette.”
He stared at her.
“You told me there wasn’t.”
“I told you I didn’t know what your mother hid from you.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“I had it.”
“Had?”
Maya swallowed.
“Eleanor gave it to me the week before she died.”
“And?”
“I listened once.”
“What was on it?”
Maya looked toward the empty arena.
“Your mother admitting she falsified a corporate record.”
David’s chest tightened.
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the tape?”
“I destroyed it.”
David stared.
“Why?”
“Because she asked me to.”
He stepped away as though she had struck him.
“You destroyed evidence.”
“Yes.”
“You let me build a case while hiding that?”
“Yes.”
“Get out.”
“David—”
“Get out of Mercer Ridge.”
Maya’s face changed.
For the first time, he saw what his words cost her.
But she nodded.
She took off her stable-manager badge.
Placed it on the table.
And left.
Five minutes later, Lena entered.
“That was a mistake.”
David looked at her.
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
“She destroyed evidence.”
“Yes.”
“She also knows your mother’s financial investigation better than anyone alive.”
David turned toward the window.
Outside, Maya walked alone toward the employee cottages.
Then Lena delivered the next blow.
“Grant Hale filed suit thirty minutes ago.”
“For what?”
“To enforce the Ridgeway Agreement.”
David turned.
“On whose behalf?”
Lena handed him the complaint.
Not Victoria.
Grant claimed he had purchased Victoria’s contractual rights six months earlier.
David stared at the signature page.
May you like
Victoria had sold Grant her claim to control Mercer Ridge.
And according to the document, she had sold it for one dollar.
