Chapter 6 - Before She Reached Three Hundred
Victor reached the estate in twelve minutes.
Vincent was waiting.
“How?”
“Clare received a message from her mother’s number. She thought Margaret had been moved.”
“Security footage?”
“Vehicle left through the south gate.”
Victor stared at him.
“You let it through?”
“It had one of our credentials.”
“Whose?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Yours.”
Victor understood.
Isabel had access deeper than they realized.
Anthony entered.
“I know where she went.”
Victor turned.
“How?”
“The old greenhouse property.”
“Father sold it.”
“No. He transferred it through one of Isabel’s shell companies.”
Victor grabbed his coat.
Anthony stepped in front of him.
“You cannot go there angry.”
“Move.”
“Victor.”
“Move.”
Anthony did.
The old greenhouse stood beyond the city limits.
Victor, Vincent, and a small security team stopped several hundred yards away.
No reckless confrontation.
No dramatic charge.
Victor wanted Clare and Maisie home.
Nothing else mattered.
Inside, Clare sat beside Maisie in a restored glass conservatory.
Neither was physically harmed.
Maisie clutched Bunny.
Clare kept one arm around her.
Across from them sat Isabel Voss.
She was in her sixties now.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Calm.
Victor entered alone.
Isabel smiled.
“You look like Marcus.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“That’s the worst thing anyone has ever said to me.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Where’s the drive?”
“Where’s Clare?”
A door opened.
Clare appeared with Maisie.
“Victor!”
Maisie pulled away before anyone could stop her.
She ran across the room.
Victor dropped to one knee and caught her.
Her arms locked around his neck.
“One Mississippi.”
Victor shut his eyes.
She was safe.
“Two Mississippi.”
He held her tightly.
“Three Mississippi.”
Clare watched.
Even Isabel seemed unsettled by the moment.
Victor whispered, “You don’t have to count this time.”
Maisie pulled back.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not letting go.”
For one dangerous second, Victor forgot everyone else existed.
Then Clare touched his shoulder.
“We need to leave.”
Victor stood and placed Maisie behind him.
Isabel spoke.
“The drive.”
“You don’t need it.”
“I do.”
“No. Because Daniel copied everything.”
For the first time, uncertainty crossed Isabel’s face.
Victor continued.
“And everything is already with attorneys outside my organization.”
That was partly a bluff.
Isabel did not know that.
“You think you can destroy me?”
Victor shook his head.
“I don’t want to destroy you.”
She laughed.
“After Sophia?”
Victor flinched.
“After Elena?”
His jaw tightened.
“You expect me to believe you don’t want revenge?”
“I wanted it for seven years.”
“And now?”
Victor looked down at Maisie.
“Now I want to go home.”
Isabel’s confidence faltered.
Outside, lights appeared beyond the glass.
Authorities had arrived using evidence Daniel had gathered.
Victor had finally understood Daniel’s plan.
Daniel had never wanted Victor to wage another private war.
He wanted the evidence brought into daylight.
Isabel looked toward the windows.
“What did you do?”
“What Daniel wanted.”
“You called them?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve become weak.”
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
He glanced at Clare and Maisie.
“I finally found something more important than being feared.”
Isabel was taken into custody.
Elliot Crane cooperated in exchange for consideration from prosecutors.
The records uncovered a network of financial crimes stretching back more than a decade.
More importantly to Victor, investigators reopened Sophia and Elena Calder’s case.
Evidence showed that Isabel had authorized the payment connected to the sabotage of Victor’s vehicle.
Victor had been the intended target.
Sophia and Elena had died because of a plan meant for him.
The truth did not bring them back.
But it ended the question that had haunted him for seven years.
Weeks later, Daniel Nolan’s death was also reinvestigated.
Investigators concluded that Daniel had discovered financial records linking Isabel to the old Calder accounts and had been deliberately followed in the days before his fatal crash.
The full truth emerged slowly.
Painfully.
Clare sat through every meeting.
Victor sat through most of them beside her.
One evening, after Maisie had fallen asleep in the library with Bunny under her chin, Clare found Victor looking at Elena’s photograph.
“You put it out.”
He nodded.
Until then, the photograph had remained locked away.
“She deserves to be seen.”
“Yes.”
Clare sat beside him.
“Does knowing the truth help?”
Victor thought for a long time.
“No.”
Clare looked surprised.
“Not the way people think it will.”
He looked at Elena.
“It doesn’t make the missing smaller.”
“What does it do?”
“It makes the guilt smaller.”
Clare nodded.
She understood.
Victor looked toward sleeping Maisie.
“What about you?”
“Same.”
Daniel had died trying to protect them.
For nearly a year, Clare had privately wondered whether she had missed something, whether she could have stopped him from investigating, whether she should have demanded answers.
Now she knew Daniel had made deliberate choices.
He had been afraid.
But he had also been brave.
“He would have liked you,” Clare said.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“He hid evidence from me.”
“He thought you were terrifying.”
“Sensible man.”
Clare laughed.
Victor looked at her.
The sound felt unexpectedly good inside his house.
Then Maisie stirred.
Her eyes opened.
“Mr. Victor?”
“I’m here.”
“Five minutes?”
Victor looked at Clare.
Clare smiled.
“You know the rules.”
Victor walked over and lifted Maisie carefully.
She rested her sleepy head against his chest.
“One Mississippi…”
Victor smiled.
“Two Mississippi…”
But somewhere around twenty, Maisie fell asleep again.
Victor carried her upstairs.
At her temporary bedroom, Clare pulled back the blankets.
Victor placed Maisie down.
As he turned away, her hand caught his finger.
“Don’t go.”
Victor froze.
Clare looked at him.
Maisie’s eyes remained closed.
“Daddy always went away.”
The words were barely audible.
Victor sat beside the bed.
“I’m right here.”
Clare quietly left the door open.
Victor remained there until sunrise.
But the following morning, an envelope arrived.
No threats.
No secrets.
Only an official document concerning Daniel Nolan.
Clare read it once.
Then again.
Her knees weakened.
Victor caught her.
“What?”
She looked up, crying.
“They cleared his name.”
Daniel had been publicly recognized as the whistleblower whose evidence exposed the conspiracy.
Clare pressed the letter against her chest.
Maisie wandered into the room.
“Mama, why are you crying?”
Clare knelt.
“Because Daddy did something very brave.”
Maisie thought about that.
“Is he coming home?”
Clare’s face crumpled.
“No, baby.”
Maisie nodded sadly.
Then she looked toward Victor.
“But Mr. Victor is here.”
Victor stopped.
Clare looked at him.
May you like
And neither adult knew yet how much those five simple words were about to change all three of their lives.
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