Chapter 10 - Victoria'S Confession
Victoria Halston had spent the first half of the night acting like the ballroom belonged to her.
By midnight, she was sitting alone in a hotel conference room with mascara beneath her eyes and no jewelry on either hand.
Ava found her there after Detective Ruiz sent officers toward Saint Mark's Church.
Victoria's confession did not make Ava like her.
It made Ava understand the machinery of her selfishness.
For years, Victoria had turned infertility, grief, social expectation, and Richard's manipulation into a private justification nobody else was allowed to challenge.
Ava noticed that Victoria never blamed Adrian for failing to become the son she had imagined during the confession.
That was one narrow mercy.
Her anger remained pointed outward, toward Leah, Ava, Dominic, and eventually Richard.
For years, Victoria had treated Adrian's loyalty as proof that her choices were justified.
Now his rejection removed that protection.
She could no longer say the lie had caused no harm simply because the child had grown into a successful man.
Success did not erase theft.
Love did not retroactively create consent.
Ava knew those ideas would become important when everyone later tried to sort punishment from repair.
Each year she spent loving Adrian made the original theft harder for her to face.
Admitting Leah had a claim would mean admitting her happiest memories were built partly on another woman's loss.
So Victoria chose the easier moral story.
Leah was unstable.
Richard was protecting the child.
Victoria was rescuing a baby who needed her.
The story rewarded her every time Adrian called her Mom.
Ava understood how dangerous a lie becomes when daily life pays people for continuing to believe it.
That did not excuse Victoria.
It explained why evidence alone had never been enough to change her.
The slap in the ballroom came from the same instinct.
Ava threatened the hierarchy that made Victoria feel secure, so Victoria told herself punishment was protection.
By sunrise, every category she relied on had collapsed.
The poor girl was an heiress.
The dead man was alive.
The adopted child was a stolen heir.
The obedient husband was exposed as the architect of the lies.
Victoria had spent decades judging who belonged.
Now she had to confront the possibility that the life she claimed most fiercely had never belonged to her alone.
Adrian had gone with them despite Ruiz's objections, this time in a police vehicle and under supervision.
Ava wanted to follow.
She also wanted an answer from the woman who had raised him.
Victoria looked up when Ava entered.
"Come to gloat?"
Ava closed the door.
"No."
"Then leave."
"Not yet."
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"You seem to be getting very comfortable telling people what to do in my hotel."
Ava pulled out the chair across from her.
"It isn't your hotel."
Victoria's mouth tightened.
"There she is."
"Who?"
"The girl I knew was hiding under the sweet voice and middle-class clothes."
Ava sat down.
"You slapped me because of my clothes?"
"I slapped you because you humiliated me."
"By asking you to put my mother back at the family table."
"By challenging me in front of everyone."
Ava stared at her.
"Do you hear yourself?"
Victoria looked away.
"You wanted obedience."
"I wanted respect."
"Those are not the same thing."
Victoria's eyes flashed.
"You think because your father bought a debt instrument and dug up old papers, you suddenly understand people like us."
Ava leaned forward.
"People like you?"
"Families with responsibilities."
"You mean secrets."
Victoria flinched.
Ava saw it.
"Tell me about Leah."
Victoria's face closed.
"No."
"Adrian is going to Saint Mark's because a phone tied to Leah's alias was located there."
Victoria's head snapped up.
"What?"
The terror in her expression was immediate and real.
Ava knew then that Victoria had believed Leah was gone forever.
"Sarah Cole."
Victoria whispered the name.
"She's alive?"
"You tell me."
Victoria stared at the table.
Her hands began shaking again.
"I don't know."
"When did you last see her?"
"Twenty-six years ago."
"Where?"
Victoria swallowed.
"A hospital."
Ava waited.
Victoria looked toward the darkened window.
"Richard and I had been trying to have a child for years."
Ava said nothing.
"Three miscarriages."
"Two surgeries."
"Every friend I had seemed to become pregnant by accident."
Her voice cracked.
"I became someone I did not recognize."
Ava felt sympathy rise and immediately resented it.
Victoria noticed.
"Do not pity me."
"I'm not."
"Good."
She wiped beneath one eye.
"Richard came home one night and told me there was a baby who needed temporary care."
"Whose baby?"
"He said an employee was sick."
"Leah."
Victoria nodded.
"I met her once."
"Before Adrian was born?"
"After."
Ava leaned closer.
"What happened?"
Victoria's voice became quieter.
"She was in a psychiatric ward."
Ava froze.
"Why?"
"They said she was suicidal."
"Was she?"
Victoria closed her eyes.
"I don't know."
"You never asked?"
"I was told she had tried to hurt herself and the baby."
Ava stared at her.
"And you believed Richard."
"I wanted to."
The honesty was uglier than a lie.
Victoria continued.
"I went to see her because I thought she might want to know the baby was safe."
"What did she say?"
Victoria's mouth trembled.
"She screamed at me to give him back."
Ava felt cold.
"And did you?"
Victoria shook her head.
"Security removed me."
"That is not what I asked."
"No."
The answer was barely audible.
"You kept him."
"Richard said the doctors believed she was dangerous."
"Did you ever see a doctor's report?"
Victoria did not answer.
"Did you ever speak to child services without Richard present?"
Silence.
"Did you ever hire your own lawyer?"
Victoria's face crumpled.
"No."
Ava sat back.
"You did not want the truth."
Victoria looked at her with tears in her eyes.
"I wanted the baby."
For once, there was no performance in the confession.
"I told myself I was saving him."
"I told myself Leah would get better and then we would do everything properly."
"Then Richard brought home new papers."
"A new birth certificate."
"A new hospital record."
"A photograph of me holding Adrian on the day he was born."
Ava frowned.
"How?"
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"A photographer and enough money can manufacture almost any memory."
She looked down at her hands.
"After a while, people stopped asking questions."
"And Adrian never knew."
"No."
"You told him you almost died giving birth to him."
Victoria covered her face.
"I know."
Ava's voice hardened.
"You made him grateful for a sacrifice you never made."
Victoria lowered her hands.
"I loved him."
"You lied to him."
"Both can be true."
Ava thought of Dominic.
She hated that Victoria was right.
"What happened to Leah?"
"Richard told me she left the hospital."
"Voluntarily?"
"He said she signed papers."
"Did you see them?"
"Yes."
"Do you still have them?"
Victoria looked toward the door.
"Maybe."
Ava's heart accelerated.
"Where?"
"Richard keeps old family documents in a safe at the house."
"What else is in that safe?"
"I don't know."
"You know something."
Victoria's jaw tightened.
"There is a red file."
Ava waited.
"Richard has had it since before Adrian could walk."
"What's inside?"
"I saw it once."
"What did you see?"
Victoria swallowed.
"A photograph of Leah."
"And?"
"A death certificate."
Ava stopped breathing.
"Leah's?"
"Yes."
"You just asked whether she was alive."
"Because I never believed the certificate."
Ava leaned forward.
"Why?"
Victoria looked directly at her.
"The date of death was three weeks before the day I saw her in the hospital."
The room went silent.
Ava felt anger crawl up her spine.
"You knew the document was false."
"I knew something was wrong."
"And you stayed."
Victoria's eyes filled again.
"I had Adrian."
"That is not an excuse."
"No."
The answer surprised Ava.
Victoria looked suddenly exhausted.
"It is the reason."
Ava stood.
"Where is the safe?"
Victoria hesitated.
"Behind the library wall in the Halston house."
"Combination?"
"Richard changes it."
"Who else knows?"
"Victor Saye used to."
Ava thought of Victor in the ambulance.
"Did Richard send Victor to steal my drive?"
Victoria's eyes narrowed.
"I think he sent him to watch you."
"That's not the same thing."
"Victor has protected Adrian since he was a baby."
Ava remembered Victor clutching the stolen drive and warning them to get Adrian out.
"Maybe he took it before Richard's people could."
Victoria nodded.
"That would be Victor."
Ava walked toward the door.
Victoria called after her.
"Ava."
She stopped.
Victoria looked at the red marks on her cheek.
For several seconds, pride fought with shame.
Shame won by a fraction.
"I should not have hit you."
Ava waited.
Victoria forced the next words out.
"I'm sorry."
Ava studied her.
"You are sorry because everything collapsed afterward."
Victoria flinched.
"Maybe."
Ava opened the door.
"Figure out whether you're sorry for the slap or sorry it had consequences."
Victoria looked down.
Ava left her there.
Her phone rang before she reached the elevator.
It was Adrian.
She answered immediately.
"Did you find Miles?"
Adrian's breathing was uneven.
"Yes."
"Is he okay?"
A long pause followed.
"He's alive."
Ava closed her eyes in relief.
Then Adrian said something she did not expect.
May you like
"Ava, Leah is here too."
