Chapter 15 — The Woman in the Black Car
Chapter 15 — The Woman in the Black Car
Evelyn called Victoria.
No answer.
The city’s traffic system tracked her car heading toward the Ashford mansion.
Evelyn arrived with Noah and federal agents.
The front doors stood open.
Inside, the house was dark.
She found Victoria in Eleanor’s preserved childhood room.
Emma sat safely on the bed drinking hot chocolate.
Evelyn pulled her daughter into her arms.
“Why did you take her?”
Victoria looked genuinely confused.
“I received a message from your number saying the building was compromised.”
Evelyn checked the phone.
The text had been spoofed.
“What happened at midnight?” she asked.
Victoria became still.
“Who told you that?”
“The person who drugged Emma’s guards.”
Emma spoke.
“A woman brought me downstairs.”
“What woman?”
“She had yellow hair and a black coat.”
“Victoria?”
Emma shook her head.
“She said Aunt Victoria was waiting.”
The woman had delivered Emma to Victoria’s car, then disappeared.
Victoria searched the old bedroom.
Beneath Eleanor’s pillow, she found a key.
It opened a cabinet hidden behind the wall.
Inside were letters written by Margaret Ashford.
One was dated the night before Eleanor’s crash.
Victoria,
If Eleanor discovers what happened at midnight, she will never forgive us. You must tell her before Gideon uses your fear against you.
Evelyn stared at her sister.
“What happened at midnight?”
Victoria sat on the bed.
“Thomas Reed came to the house.”
The accountant Evelyn believed she was supposed to meet at the rail depot had arrived at the mansion hours earlier.
He carried evidence of the East Bellhaven dumping.
Victoria confronted him in the garden.
Thomas threatened to release everything.
They argued.
Raymond appeared.
The argument became violent.
“Raymond hit Thomas,” Victoria said. “Thomas fell against the fountain.”
“Did he die?”
“No. He was conscious.”
“Then what did you do?”
Victoria looked at her hands.
“I helped Raymond put him in a car.”
“You helped abduct him.”
“I thought they were taking him to Father.”
“Where did they take him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never saw Thomas again.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice shook.
“And you let me drive to the depot believing he would meet me.”
“I went to your room to warn you. You were already gone.”
“The red phone?”
“Raymond used it. He wanted you away from the house before Thomas arrived.”
“You could have called the police.”
“I thought Father would fix it.”
“Father always fixed things by burying someone.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew it then.”
The argument stopped when Emma opened another letter.
“Mommy, this has your name.”
Margaret had written to Eleanor but never delivered it.
Your father is not the only danger. Victoria has started believing survival requires obedience. Do not hate her for being weak, but do not trust her while she remains afraid.
Evelyn read the line twice.
Victoria looked away.
A sound came from the hallway.
Noah drew his weapon.
A woman in a black coat stood at the top of the stairs.
Her blond hair was streaked with gray.
Emma pointed.
“That’s her.”
The woman raised empty hands.
“My name is Ruth Vale.”
Raymond’s former wife.
The woman who helped raise Nathan.
She had drugged the guards and brought Emma to Victoria.
“Why?” Evelyn demanded.
“To get her away from Samuel’s people.”
“You left the DNA report.”
“So you would finally learn what Gideon hid.”
Victoria read the report.
Her knees failed.
“No.”
Ruth looked at her without sympathy.
“Samuel is Nathan’s father.”
“No.”
“Raymond stole Nathan from the clinic after Gideon ordered the child transferred overseas.”
Victoria pressed one hand against her stomach.
“You raised him.”
“I tried. Raymond turned him into a weapon.”
“Where is Nathan now?”
“With Samuel.”
Samuel had disappeared from the hospital after the shooting.
He believed Nathan belonged at his side.
“What does Samuel want with him?” Noah asked.
“An heir.”
Ruth explained Samuel had no other children.
If he gained control of Ashford Industries, Nathan would inherit after him.
“But Nathan doesn’t know the truth,” Victoria said.
“He knows now.”
Ruth placed a phone on the table.
A livestream showed Samuel standing inside the Ashford Industries annual shareholder meeting.
Nathan stood beside him.
Reporters packed the room.
Samuel approached the microphone.
“My name is Samuel Ashford,” he announced. “I am Gideon Ashford’s eldest son.”
The room erupted.
He raised the DNA report.
“And this is my son, Nathan.”
Nathan looked sick.
Samuel continued.
“His mother is my half-sister, Victoria Ashford.”
Shock rolled through the audience.
Victoria watched her most private trauma become public entertainment.
Samuel looked directly into the cameras.
“The Ashford family built its empire on poison, murder and blood.”
Then Nathan grabbed the microphone.
He stared at the report.
At Samuel.
At the reporters.
“You said you wanted to give me a family.”
Samuel whispered something.
Nathan pushed him away.
“You only wanted another thing with your name on it.”
Then Nathan removed a pistol from his jacket.
May you like
He aimed it at Samuel’s head.
The broadcast cut to black.
