Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO INHERITED A LIE
Victoria realized her mistake immediately.
Her hand closed around the charm.
Clara stepped closer.
“Your mother knew Anthony?”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“You’re a maid.”
“And yet you’re answering.”
“You should remember your place.”
“I’ve spent eleven months remembering my place.”
Clara looked at the charm.
“Tonight I’m getting tired of it.”
Victoria slapped her.
The sound cracked across the kitchen.
Every employee froze.
Clara’s cheek burned.
Gerard stepped forward.
Then stopped when Damian appeared in the doorway.
He had seen enough.
“What happened?”
Victoria turned.
“Damian—”
“I asked what happened.”
Clara wiped her cheek.
“She hit me.”
Victoria laughed.
“She accused my mother of theft.”
“No. I asked where you got the necklace.”
Damian’s eyes dropped to the charm.
His face changed.
“Take it off.”
Victoria blinked.
“What?”
“The necklace.”
“Damian, this belonged to my mother.”
“Take it off.”
Her hands shook as she unclasped it.
Damian examined the tiny bracelet charm.
Inside the miniature clasp were two engraved initials.
E.C.
Elena Costello.
Damian’s mother.
Victoria went pale.
“My mother said Anthony gave it to her.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Why would my uncle give your mother jewelry that belonged to mine?”
Victoria looked toward the dining room.
Anthony had stopped eating.
He could see them through the open doors.
Damian noticed too.
“Gerard, close the kitchen.”
The doors swung shut.
Victoria finally whispered, “My mother worked here.”
Clara’s stomach dropped.
“Who was she?”
“Margaret Kensington.”
Gerard swore under his breath.
He knew that name.
Damian did too.
Margaret had been Elena Costello’s personal assistant twenty years earlier.
She had testified that she saw Joanne leaving Elena’s bedroom the night the bracelet disappeared.
The accusation that destroyed Clara’s mother had come from Victoria’s mother.
“Margaret lied,” Clara said.
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re wearing proof.”
“I didn’t know what this was.”
Damian’s voice went cold.
“What did your mother tell you about Joanne Hughes?”
Victoria looked at Clara.
“That she was dangerous.”
Clara almost laughed.
“My mother spent twenty years afraid to use her own name.”
Victoria swallowed.
“She said Joanne stole documents from Vincent and tried to blackmail the family.”
“That was the story everyone was told,” Damian said.
Victoria looked at him.
“You believe the maid?”
“Her mother wrote a letter before yours lied.”
Something changed in Victoria’s face.
Not anger.
Panic.
“My mother left something too.”
“Where?”
“Her lawyer has it.”
Damian stepped closer.
“What?”
“A recording. She told me never to listen unless Anthony Costello was dead.”
The kitchen fell silent.
Anthony was very much alive.
And sitting twenty feet away.
Victoria looked toward the closed doors.
“She was terrified of him.”
Clara’s pulse quickened.
“Why?”
Victoria whispered:
May you like
“Because my mother helped him frame Joanne.”
Then a gunshot exploded from the dining room.
