Chapter 13 - THE LAST MOVE VICTORIA VANCE MADE
Victoria had booked a private jet.
Departure: New York.
Destination: Dubai.
Passenger manifest: one.
Brooke stared at the document.
"She's running."
Arthur shook his head.
"She doesn't run."
Thomas looked at him.
"Then what does she do?"
"She makes everyone else panic first."
Arthur was right.
The jet was a decoy.
Investigators discovered Victoria was still in Connecticut.
She had spent the previous night inside Vance Holdings headquarters shredding paper records.
Federal agents arrived before dawn.
By noon, financial regulators had seized servers and issued preservation orders across three countries.
The empire Victoria had spent decades controlling was suddenly no longer hers to command.
She called me that afternoon.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
"Emma."
Her voice was perfectly calm.
"Victoria."
"You think you've won."
"This isn't a game."
"It has always been a game."
"No. That's your problem."
Silence.
I continued.
"My children aren't pieces. Arthur isn't a piece. Brooke isn't a piece. Vanessa's baby isn't a piece."
"And you?"
"I'm finally off your board."
For the first time, she lost control.
"Your father would have destroyed everything we built!"
"My father built part of it."
"He was weak."
"No."
I looked out toward the garden where Leo and Chloe were chasing each other under the orange trees.
"He trusted the wrong people."
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"So did you."
Maybe.
But not anymore.
She lowered her voice.
"Ask Thomas why your father chose him."
I looked across the room.
Thomas couldn't hear her.
"What are you talking about?"
"Thomas Landry didn't simply represent Richard."
My stomach tightened.
"He invested with him."
I looked at Thomas again.
Victoria continued.
"And when your father's company collapsed, Thomas became very wealthy."
The call ended.
I immediately confronted him.
Thomas didn't deny it.
"I made money after Richard died."
"How much?"
"Enough."
"From his company?"
"From assets he told me to buy."
I felt betrayed all over again.
"You hid this from me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I knew Victoria would eventually use it to make you doubt me."
"Then why should I trust you?"
Thomas opened his briefcase.
He removed a folder.
"My resignation."
I stared at him.
"From what?"
"Trustee of the Carter estate."
He slid it toward me.
"You should never have to trust me because you have no alternative."
Then he placed another document beside it.
A complete accounting of every dollar he'd ever earned through my father's investments.
Independent auditors had already verified it.
Every transaction had been legal.
Every Carter asset had remained untouched.
Thomas stood.
"I loved your father like a brother."
His eyes shone.
"And if stepping away helps you feel safe, I'll do it."
Before I could answer, Arthur's phone rang.
He listened.
His face drained of color.
"What happened?"
He lowered the phone.
"My mother has been arrested."
But that wasn't the shock.
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The investigators had also found a sealed confession in Henry Vance's old safe.
And one paragraph was addressed directly to Arthur.
