Chapter 8 - THE STEPMOTHER WHO WANTED EVERYTHING
Victoria Hart had entered my life when I was seventeen.
She was elegant, charming, and twelve years younger than my father.
After my mother died, Victoria became the woman who organized holiday dinners, remembered birthdays, and insisted that Hartwell Industries needed a more modern image.
I had never loved her.
But I'd tried to respect her.
When my father died, Victoria received the assets specifically provided for her in his estate plan.
She seemed satisfied.
Eventually, she moved to Palm Beach.
Or so I thought.
Now Peter Wallace was telling me she'd helped orchestrate a financial scheme against the very company my father built.
"Are you certain?" I asked.
Peter nodded.
"Your father found payments moving through trusts connected to Victoria."
Margaret looked at the documents.
"Why wasn't this disclosed during the estate administration?"
Peter lowered his head.
"Because Victor Lang handled some of the records, and I failed to challenge them."
My anger rose.
"You knew?"
"I suspected. I didn't have enough proof."
"Eleven years, Peter."
His eyes filled with tears.
"I know."
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I looked at Margaret.
"Let's examine the recording."
Daniel connected the storage drive to an isolated computer.
A video appeared.
My father sat at his desk.
He looked tired.
Older than I remembered.
But his voice was steady.
"Victoria, I know about the accounts."
A woman's voice answered from outside the camera frame.
"Robert, you're being paranoid."
"Don't insult me."
My breath caught.
I hadn't heard Dad's voice in eleven years.
For a moment, I forgot everything else.
Then he continued.
"The supplier contracts are fraudulent. Someone has been diverting money from the company."
Victoria laughed.
"You're old-fashioned, Robert. This is how business works now."
"No. Theft is theft."
A chair scraped.
Then Victoria said something I would never forget.
"You're standing in the way of everything we've planned."
Dad's voice sharpened.
"We?"
There was a pause.
Then another man's voice entered the recording.
Julian.
I recognized it immediately.
At the time, Julian was a junior business development executive at Hartwell.
I hadn't even met him yet.
"Robert," he said calmly, "we can resolve this without involving the authorities."
My heart stopped.
Julian had known my father years before he met me.
But he'd always claimed they barely worked together.
On the recording, Dad said, "You should both leave."
Victoria replied coldly.
"You'll regret this."
The video ended.
I sat frozen.
Julian hadn't simply married into the family.
He'd been involved in the suspicious transactions before we ever became a couple.
I slowly looked at Peter.
"Did Julian know who I was when we met?"
Peter's eyes filled with shame.
"Yes."
My throat tightened.
"Did he approach me deliberately?"
Peter hesitated.
Then nodded.
The room seemed to spin.
The flowers.
The romantic dinners.
The proposal.
The beautiful wedding.
Had any of it been real?
Daniel opened another file.
An old email exchange between Victoria and Julian.
Dated six months before our first date.
The subject line read:
PROJECT HART SUCCESSION.
I read the first message.
Then the second.
Then the third.
May you like
And finally I reached the instruction that shattered what remained of my marriage.
MARRY MAYA. EARN HER TRUST. THE COMPANY WILL FOLLOW.
