Chapter 18 - Victoria's Last Bargain
Rosa almost refused.
Then she changed her mind.
The meeting took place in a secure attorney conference room.
A glass partition separated them.
Victoria looked nothing like the woman who had once ruled the Caldwell estate.
Her hair was plain.
Her makeup was gone.
There was no engagement ring.
Rosa sat across from her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Victoria finally broke the silence.
“You won.”
Rosa stared at her.
“You still think this was a competition?”
Victoria looked away.
“You have Ethan.”
“I don’t.”
Victoria’s eyes snapped back.
“What?”
“Ethan and I are figuring out how to raise Lily.”
“That’s all?”
“That is none of your business.”
Victoria almost smiled bitterly.
“You always were better at this.”
“At what?”
“Making him look at you.”
Rosa shook her head.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Rosa leaned forward.
“I never wanted your life.”
“You worked in his house.”
“Because I needed money.”
“You had his child.”
“Because we loved each other.”
“You kept her secret.”
“Because I was afraid.”
Victoria’s voice sharpened.
“And you expect me to believe none of that was calculated?”
Rosa became very calm.
“What did you calculate when you pushed Lily?”
Victoria flinched.
Silence filled the room.
Finally, Victoria whispered.
“I hated that piano.”
Rosa frowned.
“What?”
“Ethan loved it because of his mother.”
Victoria looked down.
“He never looked at anything I chose for the wedding with that kind of emotion.”
“So you blamed a piano?”
“I blamed everything I could not control.”
There was painful honesty in the admission.
Victoria continued.
“When I saw Lily sitting there, I thought she was another person touching something that would never belong to me.”
“She was three.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Rosa did not comfort her.
Victoria reached for a document.
“My attorney says I can reduce my sentence if I provide complete cooperation.”
Rosa waited.
“There is one thing investigators still don’t have.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
Victoria swallowed.
“My father and Richard discussing Elizabeth Caldwell’s accident.”
Rosa’s blood went cold.
“Where is it?”
“In a private cloud account.”
“Why didn’t you give it to investigators?”
“I wanted something.”
Rosa’s expression hardened.
“There it is.”
Victoria looked ashamed.
“I want Ethan to know I didn’t cause the fire.”
“You caused the circumstances.”
“I know.”
“I’m not making a deal.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Victoria slid a code across the table.
“I already decided.”
Rosa stared at it.
“Why give this to me?”
Victoria looked through the glass.
“Because he won’t believe anything I say.”
“But he believes you.”
Rosa took the code.
That evening, investigators opened the account.
The recording was nine years old.
Richard’s voice was clear.
So was Charles Haynes’s.
Elizabeth’s accident had not been planned.
But Richard admitted he had ordered someone to follow her.
The hired driver chased Elizabeth’s car through heavy rain.
She lost control.
Richard knew afterward.
And remained silent for twenty-one years.
Ethan listened to the recording once.
Only once.
Then he walked into the east parlor.
May you like
He placed both hands on his mother’s piano.
And finally allowed himself to cry.
