Chapter 17 - THE WOMAN WHO WANTED SERENA'S LIFE
Victoria stood at the top of the cellar stairs with both hands wrapped around the pistol.
For the first time since Beatrice had known her, she looked nothing like the woman in charity photographs.
No perfect hair.
No careful smile.
No silk blouse without a wrinkle.
She looked exhausted, furious, and frightened.
Edmund Shaw looked merely annoyed.
"You were supposed to be in custody."
Victoria descended one step.
"I was."
"Then you made another mistake."
"No."
She descended another.
"My mistake was believing you would protect me after Serena died."
Shaw smiled.
"I did protect you."
"You owned me."
"Same result."
Beatrice looked toward the microphone grille again.
If Leo was listening, he was hearing the entire collapse of an alliance built on blackmail.
Outside the north wall, he was.
Mateo had connected the cellar feed to the federal command vehicle.
Every word was being recorded twice.
Leo stood beside the speakers with his hands clenched at his sides.
An agent held him back from entering.
"We need them talking."
Leo's eyes remained on the mansion.
"He has Beatrice."
"She is keeping him talking."
"She should not have to."
Mateo looked at him.
"No."
"But she is."
Inside the cellar, Victoria reached the bottom step.
Shaw's guard raised his weapon.
Victoria pointed hers at him.
"Try it."
The guard looked at Shaw.
Shaw gave no instruction.
Beatrice used the silence.
"Why did you choose me?"
Victoria looked at her.
"What?"
"Dante said you chose me as the person to blame."
Victoria's mouth tightened.
"This is not the time."
"It is exactly the time."
"Beatrice."
"Why me?"
Victoria's eyes flashed.
"Because you were there."
"So were twenty other staff members."
"Because Serena trusted you."
"So did Mateo."
"Because Lily loved you."
There it was.
Beatrice felt it land with more force than any insult Victoria had ever thrown at her.
"You hated that."
Victoria laughed once.
"Do not flatter yourself."
"I am not."
"You hated that Lily came to me when she was scared."
"You hated that she asked for me when she was sick."
"You hated that Serena gave me a job at Haven House."
Victoria took one more step.
"You were staff."
"Yes."
"You were supposed to know your place."
Beatrice almost smiled.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The part of you that never understood why Lily loved me."
Victoria's face reddened.
"Lily was confused after Serena died."
"She was grieving."
"You encouraged dependency."
"I sat under a table and gave her a cookie."
"You made yourself necessary."
Beatrice stared at her.
"No."
"You did."
"That was you."
Victoria froze.
Beatrice's voice became softer.
"You came into the house after Serena died and made yourself necessary."
"You organized meals."
"You attended school meetings."
"You chose Lily's clothes."
"You started sitting beside Leo at dinner."
"You moved Serena's photographs out of the breakfast room because you said they made Lily sad."
Victoria's hand shook.
"I was helping."
"You were replacing her."
The word hit.
Shaw smiled faintly.
He enjoyed the wound because it was not his.
Victoria saw him smile.
"You shut up."
Shaw's expression hardened.
Beatrice kept going.
"You wanted Serena's place."
"That is ridiculous."
"Did you want Leo?"
Victoria looked toward the ceiling.
"Everyone wanted Leo."
"That is not an answer."
"I wanted him to see me."
The confession came out before she could stop it.
Beatrice waited.
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"Serena walked into every room and people turned toward her."
"She did not even try."
"Our father looked at her like she was the only good thing he had ever made."
"She got the name."
"The family."
"The public love."
"Then she married Leo against everyone's advice, and even that became romantic."
Harold heard the words over the federal feed from a second vehicle.
He closed his eyes.
Victoria continued.
"I was the secret daughter."
"The mistake."
"The girl raised by a man who was not my father because Harold could not risk a scandal."
"Serena knew and still treated me like a sister."
Beatrice spoke quietly.
"And you hated her for being kind to you."
Victoria's eyes filled.
"I hated that she could afford to be."
The cellar went silent.
Even Shaw stopped smiling.
Beatrice understood something then.
Victoria had spent her life turning humiliation into entitlement.
Every wound became permission to wound someone else.
"So you gave Shaw access to the garage."
Victoria's face changed.
"I did not know about the bomb."
"But after Serena died, you knew."
"Not immediately."
"When?"
Victoria looked at Shaw.
"He told me three days after the funeral."
Beatrice's breath caught.
"And you said nothing."
Victoria's voice cracked.
"What was I supposed to do?"
"Tell the truth."
"Leo would have killed me."
Outside, Leo's face became stone.
Victoria continued.
"Harold would have lost the bank."
"The family would have been destroyed."
Beatrice stared at her.
"So you let Leo destroy the wrong family instead."
Victoria looked away.
"The Morettis were not innocent."
"Serena was."
Victoria flinched.
Beatrice did not let her escape the point.
"Lily was."
Victoria's voice sharpened.
"I did not try to kill Lily."
"You locked her in a cellar."
"To scare her."
"Why?"
Victoria's face tightened.
"She heard me talking to Edmund."
"About the bombing?"
"About the bank box."
"She repeated part of it to you."
Victoria nodded toward Beatrice.
"I needed to know what she had heard."
"So you grabbed her."
"She would not stop shouting."
"Because you were hurting me."
"You interfered."
Beatrice stared at her.
"I protected a child."
"You always needed to be the hero."
That was so absurd Beatrice almost laughed.
"You hit me with a tray."
"You were blocking the door."
"You dragged Lily downstairs."
"She was supposed to stay ten minutes."
"Without her inhaler."
Victoria's jaw trembled.
"I thought there was another one in the cellar emergency cabinet."
Beatrice stopped.
"There used to be."
"Yes."
"Who removed it?"
Victoria looked at Shaw.
Shaw's face remained blank.
Beatrice understood.
"He did."
Victoria's voice broke.
"I didn't know."
Shaw finally spoke.
"You were told to make the situation convincing."
Victoria turned on him.
"You removed her medication?"
"Dante had it removed during the security update."
"Why?"
"Because if the child simply walked out crying, Beatrice could explain too much."
Victoria stared at him.
The last excuse available to her disappeared.
She had believed she was staging fear.
Shaw had been willing to let the child die because death made the frame stronger.
Beatrice looked at Victoria.
"You still put her there."
Victoria's eyes filled.
"I know."
It was the first time she had said the words without defending them.
Outside, the lead federal agent nodded toward the recording operator.
They had enough.
Leo moved toward the entrance.
The agent blocked him again.
"Tactical team goes first."
Leo's voice was deadly calm.
"Move."
Mateo stepped between them.
"Leo."
"Move."
Then a sharp sound burst from the cellar speakers.
A gunshot.
Leo stopped breathing.
Inside, Shaw's guard had fired at Victoria.
The bullet struck the stone beside her.
Victoria fired back.
The guard fell against the wall, wounded but conscious.
Shaw lunged for Beatrice.
She drove her shoulder into his chest before he could grab her.
The camera crashed to the floor.
Victoria screamed.
Beatrice grabbed the chair and shoved it between herself and Shaw.
Footsteps thundered overhead.
Federal agents had entered the mansion.
Shaw looked toward the stairs.
Then toward the old wine passage behind the shelving.
Beatrice saw his eyes move.
She understood too late.
He knew the hidden route.
Shaw shoved the shelf aside and disappeared into the narrow opening.
Victoria ran after him.
"No!"
Beatrice grabbed her arm.
Victoria swung around and pressed the pistol against Beatrice's ribs.
Everything stopped.
"Let go."
Beatrice slowly released her.
"He's leaving you again."
Victoria's face twisted.
"Shut up."
"He used you."
"I know."
"Then don't follow him."
"I am not following him."
Victoria grabbed Beatrice by the sleeve and pulled her toward the passage.
"I am making sure he cannot tell my father I was the only one responsible."
Beatrice stumbled into the darkness beside her.
The shelf closed behind them seconds before federal agents reached the cellar.
Leo ran down the stairs.
The room was empty except for the wounded guard, the broken camera, and Lily's torn rabbit on the floor.
He picked up the rabbit.
"Beatrice?"
Mateo found the hidden shelf.
"Passage."
Leo turned.
Inside the tunnel, Victoria forced Beatrice forward at gunpoint.
The passage climbed beneath the west wing toward an old greenhouse exit.
Halfway through, Victoria's phone vibrated.
She looked at the screen.
One message.
From Emil.
WAITING AT HAVEN HOUSE.
Victoria went pale.
Beatrice saw it.
"What?"
Victoria tried to hide the phone.
Beatrice grabbed her wrist.
"What did you do?"
Victoria's eyes filled with panic.
"Insurance."
"What insurance?"
Victoria whispered four words.
May you like
"He is near Lily."
