Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF A FAMILY NAME
I met Victoria in the library two days later. She arrived with her attorney and refused the chair Elena had offered, choosing instead to stand beside the fireplace as if the room were a courtroom and she were the judge.
“You've embarrassed this family,” she said.
“You falsified records and helped transfer company assets.”
“I protected what your father built.”
“My father built it for us to steward, not for you to sell.”
She looked at Elena. “Must she be here?”
“Yes,” I said. “She represents me. Priya represents Maya. You have your own counsel. We are going to discuss facts.”
Victoria's face hardened. “Facts are only useful when people understand the consequences. Your father died believing the family name mattered more than any individual. I have spent my life keeping it intact.”
“By hurting my wife?”
“By preventing a weak decision from destroying you.”
“What weak decision?”
“Marrying a woman with no family influence. Giving her a voice in a company she barely understands. Letting her carry a child who will inherit everything before he can even speak.”
I felt my hands curl. Elena glanced at me, a quiet reminder that this meeting was being recorded and that I had promised to remain in control.
I unclenched them.
“You believe Maya is weak because she doesn't use fear to get what she wants,” I said. “You believe she doesn't belong because she doesn't treat people as possessions. That is not a weakness. It is the reason I married her.”
Victoria laughed without warmth. “Then you are more foolish than I thought.”
“Did you tell Julian to hurt her?”
“I told him to make her understand the seriousness of the situation.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“I never asked him to leave marks.”
The room went silent.
Elena wrote something down. Victoria seemed to realize what she had said. She sat at last, her shoulders rigid.
“Julian said she had become impossible,” she continued. “She refused to sign the documents. She threatened to call you. I told him to frighten her enough to stop the threats. I did not know he would go as far as he did.”
“You knew she was being threatened.”
“She was being unreasonable.”
“She's pregnant.”
“Exactly. She was going to make you emotional.”
I looked at my mother and saw a stranger wearing a familiar face.
“Why the paternity accusation?”
Victoria's eyes flickered. “It was a question.”
“No. It was a weapon. You wanted me to doubt Maya so I would look at her instead of the documents.”
She did not deny it.
The meeting ended when Victoria's attorney advised her to stop answering questions. She left without looking at me.
Afterward, Elena told me that the statement would be useful, but it was not enough to prove every allegation. We still needed bank records, messages, and testimony from people who had witnessed the coercion. I agreed to let the investigators do their work.
Julian, however, had begun moving. Marcus discovered that he had booked a flight under another name and reserved a room at a hotel near Dulles Airport. He had also tried to access the company's shipment database using a suspended credential.
We did not send anyone to drag him home. Elena notified the authorities and secured the account logs. Marcus arranged for a lawyer to contact Julian with instructions not to destroy documents or leave the jurisdiction while the fraud investigation was active. Whether Julian complied was his decision, but every attempt to hide evidence would be recorded.
That evening, I visited Maya at the apartment. She was sitting near the window, knitting a tiny blue blanket with uneven stitches. The sight of it hurt me in a way no business loss could.
“It's not very good,” she said, noticing me look.
“It looks perfect.”
“That's because you're biased.”
“I am.”
She smiled faintly, then grew serious. “Did you talk to your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Did she admit anything?”
“She admitted that she told Julian to frighten you. She says she didn't know how badly he hurt you.”
Maya looked down at the blanket. “She watched him grab my arm hard enough to make me fall. She didn't stop him.”
I had no answer.
“I used to think if I stayed polite, if I didn't provoke them, they would stop,” Maya said. “Then I realized there was no version of me that could make them kind. They needed me to be afraid.”
I sat on the other end of the sofa, leaving space between us.
“You don't have to be polite to them anymore.”
“I know. But I don't want revenge. I want my life back.”
“Then that's what we'll work toward.”
She set the blanket aside. “And I want to choose what happens after the baby is born. I don't want the company, your mother, or your reputation deciding every part of our child's future.”
“You will.”
She searched my face. “Even if I decide I need time away from you?”
The question struck deeper than I expected. I wanted to tell her that she could never need time away from me, that I would never hurt her, that she was safe because I was there. But she had already learned how dangerous promises could be when backed by power instead of action.
“Even then,” I said. “You and the baby will be safe. I won't use money, lawyers, or security to force you to stay with me.”
She looked at me for a long time.
“That's the first thing you've said that makes me believe you might understand.”
I went home alone.
The next morning, Elena received a notice that Peter Vale's fund had attempted to sell the disputed shares to a third party. The court order prevented the transaction, but the attempt proved the scheme was moving faster than expected.
Then a message arrived from Julian's attorney. Julian wanted to meet privately. He claimed he had evidence that Victoria had been working with Vale long before the transfers began.
May you like
Elena advised caution. We agreed to meet in a monitored conference room, with counsel present and no private contact.
My brother had finally realized that the people he had trusted might not intend to share the prize.
