Chapter 16 - VICTORIA'S PRICE
Victoria Sterling looked smaller without a ballroom around her.
She sat in an interview room wearing borrowed clothes and no makeup.
A stitched cut disappeared into her hairline.
One wrist was bruised.
Marcus watched through the glass with Detective Ortiz.
He felt no sympathy.
He also felt no satisfaction.
Victoria had pushed Theo toward the pool.
Whatever Sebastian did afterward did not erase that.
Her attorney began with a demand for immunity.
The prosecutor almost laughed.
"Your client is on video pushing an infant into a pool and on another video altering his medication."
Victoria's attorney folded his hands.
"She was coerced."
"Then she can explain coercion without immunity."
Victoria looked at the camera.
"Marcus is watching, isn't he?"
Ortiz did not respond.
Victoria gave a tired smile.
"He always watches once the damage is already done."
Marcus absorbed the insult because part of it was true.
The prosecutor placed a photograph of Theo on the table.
"Start with the ballroom."
Victoria looked away.
For the first time, her tears did not arrive on command.
She simply looked exhausted.
"Sebastian told me Elena would catch the stroller."
"Did you believe him?"
"I wanted to."
"That is not what I asked."
Victoria swallowed.
"No."
The prosecutor waited.
"I knew Theo could get hurt."
Marcus closed his eyes briefly.
The admission was uglier than denial.
"Why do it?"
Victoria stared at the table.
"Because by then I thought I had no way out."
She described Sebastian's recruitment.
Eight months after Claire's death, Victoria owed nearly nine hundred thousand dollars from a failed luxury events business.
Sebastian offered to clear the debt if she introduced herself to Marcus at a museum fundraiser.
At first, the assignment sounded simple.
Date him.
Learn his routines.
Encourage him to rely more heavily on Sebastian.
Report which staff members he trusted.
Victoria told herself it was corporate espionage.
Then Sebastian asked her to move into the townhouse.
He paid her debts in installments to keep leverage.
He gave Daniel Rusk instructions to help her monitor the household.
He told her which arguments to start and which insecurities to press.
"What insecurities?" the prosecutor asked.
Victoria looked toward the glass.
"Claire."
Marcus went cold.
Victoria explained that Sebastian knew Marcus felt guilty about Claire's death because he had asked her to stay at the retreat after he left.
Sebastian taught Victoria how to use that guilt.
If Marcus questioned her, she said Claire would have trusted her.
If Marcus resisted wedding plans, she said he was afraid to love again.
If Elena challenged her, she said Elena was trying to keep Marcus trapped in the past.
It was emotional pressure engineered from information only an old friend would know.
"Did Conrad know about you?"
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"Conrad approved me."
The prosecutor paused.
"Explain."
Sebastian took Victoria to the Hale lodge six weeks after she began dating Marcus.
Conrad met her in the library.
He asked whether Marcus was becoming attached.
He asked whether Theo responded to her.
He asked whether Elena distrusted her.
Then Conrad gave Victoria one instruction.
"Make Marcus choose you over the staff."
Victoria had done exactly that.
Small complaints came first.
Elena used the wrong flowers.
Elena ignored a guest.
Nora overstepped.
The house manager was disrespectful.
Each conflict trained Marcus to see Victoria as the person simplifying his life while long-serving staff became sources of friction.
Marcus thought of Elena's accusation.
Every time the truth was inconvenient, someone calmer and richer told you a cleaner version.
Victoria had been trained to provide the cleaner version.
"When did Theo's medication begin?"
Victoria rubbed her wrist.
"After Nora found the trust draft."
The prosecutor leaned forward.
"Nora found it?"
"She saw papers in Sebastian's bag while he was at the house."
Nora had confronted Victoria, not knowing she was part of the plot.
Victoria told Sebastian.
He ordered her to make Nora look negligent.
The medication tampering served two purposes.
It made Theo sleep through nights when Sebastian and Daniel entered the house.
It also created a future reason to fire Nora if she raised questions.
"You drugged a baby to make your meetings easier?"
Victoria began crying.
"I know what it sounds like."
The prosecutor's expression turned hard.
"It sounds like what you did."
Victoria stopped trying to explain.
Marcus was grateful for that.
The prosecutor moved to the ballroom.
The plan had been finalized three weeks earlier.
The charity gala was chosen because it placed Marcus, Theo, Elena, Victoria, board members, donors, and cameras in one controlled room.
Daniel arranged the stroller position.
A Northstar technician adjusted the pool barrier sensor so no alarm sounded when the stroller crossed the boundary.
Victoria would release the brake and push gently.
Elena was scheduled to pass nearby with a tray at exactly 9:16.
Sebastian had obtained the catering rotation.
"Why Elena?"
Victoria looked at the glass again.
"Because Marcus trusted Claire's judgment about her."
The prosecutor frowned.
"Then why would he attack her?"
"Because Sebastian said grief makes trust unstable."
Victoria's voice became quieter.
"He said Marcus would hate Elena more in that moment because Claire had trusted her."
Marcus felt physically ill.
Sebastian had not merely predicted anger.
He had modeled grief.
"What was supposed to happen after the push?"
Victoria described the sequence.
She would scream that Elena pushed Theo.
Daniel would reinforce the accusation.
A Northstar employee posing as a guest would film Marcus's reaction.
The edited clip would go to Whitaker Nash.
The fake employee abuse report would reach the board.
Conrad would call the emergency meeting.
The forged trust clause would activate after suspension.
Sebastian would become acting CEO.
Conrad would gain voting control.
Three days later, they would approve the Arden Crest merger.
"And Theo?"
Victoria's eyes filled.
"Sebastian said the baby would be fine."
"You already admitted you did not believe that."
Victoria nodded.
"No."
"Then what did you think might happen?"
She whispered.
"I thought he might die."
Marcus turned away from the glass.
Ortiz watched him carefully.
He kept his hands open at his sides.
He breathed.
He did not move toward the interview room.
That restraint was not redemption.
It was only the minimum required of a man learning not to become the weapon others expected.
The prosecutor asked about Sebastian's car.
Victoria said she panicked after Marcus announced the audio recording in the board meeting.
She slipped out through the service corridor with Daniel's help.
Sebastian picked her up.
Inside the car, he told her the plan was changing.
She would disappear for forty-eight hours.
Her lawyers would file the custody petition.
Then she would return publicly as a frightened whistleblower.
Victoria agreed until Sebastian took away her phone and produced a syringe.
"What was in it?"
"I don't know."
She fought him.
The car swerved.
Her head struck the window, causing the blood on the seat.
At a traffic light near the bridge, she opened the rear door and ran.
Sebastian did not chase her because a patrol car was nearby.
Victoria hid inside a twenty-four-hour church shelter, then contacted her attorney.
"Why wait until today to surrender?"
"Because I was trying to trade information for protection."
At least she was honest about that.
"What information?"
Victoria removed a small plastic object from her attorney's evidence bag.
A microSD card.
She had hidden it inside the lining of her silver clutch before the gala.
Sebastian believed he controlled all recordings.
Victoria recorded him because she never trusted him enough to be defenseless.
The card contained weeks of phone audio.
One file was dated six days before the gala.
The prosecutor played it.
Sebastian's voice came first.
"The trust clause is active once the board suspends him."
Conrad answered.
Marcus recognized his uncle instantly.
"Only if the employee allegation is accepted."
Sebastian laughed.
"It will be."
"Marcus has to make it believable."
"He will."
Conrad's voice hardened.
"Do not underestimate him because he is grieving."
Sebastian answered with contempt.
"Grief is the reason this works."
There was a pause.
Then Conrad said the sentence Victoria had promised.
"We should have finished this with Claire."
Sebastian replied.
"We did finish Claire."
Conrad's voice became sharp.
"No."
"We removed Claire."
"We did not remove what she found."
A chair scraped in the background.
Conrad continued.
"Find Red before Marcus does."
The recording stopped.
Marcus stared through the glass at Victoria.
She had given them direct evidence connecting Conrad and Sebastian to Claire's death and the hidden ledger.
Ortiz's phone began vibrating.
She looked at the screen.
"Search teams at Conrad's apartment found nothing."
"Where is he?" Marcus asked.
"Gone."
A second call arrived before she finished.
Sebastian's private aircraft had requested clearance from a small airport in Westchester.
Destination: Zurich.
Ortiz ordered state police and federal agents to intercept.
Marcus watched Victoria as she leaned back in the interview room.
For the first time since the ballroom, she looked almost relieved.
Then her attorney handed the prosecutor one final document.
"There is one more reason my client came in."
The prosecutor opened it.
It was an email Victoria had received from Sebastian that morning.
The subject line contained only one word.
MARCUS.
The body contained a photograph taken through a telephoto lens.
It showed Elena carrying Theo into the court-approved apartment.
Beneath the photograph was a single sentence.
May you like
IF RED IS GONE, THE BABY BECOMES THE LEVER AGAIN.
