The Daughter Victoria Underestimated
Chapter 09 - The Daughter Victoria Underestimated
Isabelle signed the proxy while a hidden camera in her necklace recorded every word.
Victoria relaxed for the first time in days. She admitted that Marcus had taken Ethan to an abandoned Sterling warehouse near the river. She promised Ethan would be released after the board vote, provided Isabelle remained obedient.
The moment Victoria left, Isabelle sent the recording to Daniel.
Daniel and two detectives drove to the warehouse before dawn. They found Ethan locked inside an office, dehydrated but alive. Beside him were boxes of financial records Marcus had planned to destroy after the merger. The documents connected Victoria and Marcus to shell companies, bribed laboratory employees, and payments made to the hospital doctor twenty-eight years earlier.
Ethan’s first question was about Clara.
“She is in jail because of me,” he said. “I gave Victoria access to her hospital schedule months ago. I thought she only wanted to know when Clara was free.”
Daniel did not offer comfort. “Then tell the truth where everyone can hear it.”
At the county jail, Clara sat alone beneath fluorescent lights. She had spent years calming frightened patients, but nothing had prepared her for being treated as dangerous. She repeated Rose’s last words in her mind: A good life is not the one without fear. It is the one fear does not own.
Her attorney arrived with news that Ethan had been found and the district attorney was reviewing new evidence. Release could still take hours. The board vote would begin in forty minutes.
Meanwhile, Gabriel’s heart rhythm worsened. Victoria instructed the physician to continue the medication listed in his chart. Isabelle noticed that one tablet matched the altered pill Clara had shown them.
She swept the tray onto the floor.
“That medicine is poisoning him.”
Victoria slapped her.
The sound silenced the hospital suite. Isabelle touched her cheek, then looked toward the security camera in the corner.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “Now they can see you.”
A nurse called hospital security. Gabriel’s independent cardiologist arrived moments later, stopped the medication, and ordered an antidote. Within an hour, Gabriel opened his eyes.
His first word was Clara’s name.
May you like
His second was a command.
“Take me to the board meeting.”
