Chapter 5 - VIVIAN’S CONFESSION
Vivian Ashford called the next morning and asked to meet. She admitted she had trained as a dancer before marrying Walter. He had persuaded her to quit, telling her that a better life awaited her if she stopped competing.
“I should have stopped him at the gala,” she said. “I knew he was humiliating you.”
She remembered my name from the national circuit. Walter had sponsored the championship and favored his niece, Caroline, who had been competing against me. After I won, he complained that the judges had embarrassed him.
Vivian had heard Walter arguing with someone about Daniel’s debts. He said the problem would disappear if Daniel kept quiet.
She gave me the name of Peter Shaw, a former driver who had worked for Walter. Ethan and I found him in a care facility. Peter recognized the Ashford name and became agitated.
May you like
“Your father’s brother,” he whispered to Ethan. “He was in the other car.”
Ethan went pale. His uncle Richard had supposedly died overseas eight years earlier.
