Chapter 9
Caleb broke faster once he understood Victoria had used him.
“She said Frank saw the letter.”
Victoria laughed.
“Our uncle was drunk half his life.”
Caleb turned on her.
“You said he read it.”
“I said he knew what Vincent Carter intended.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Interesting.
The language of manipulation collapsing under precision.
I let them talk.
Victoria had spent years making everyone react before they could compare memories.
Now I gave them room.
Caleb continued.
“You said Dominic’s mother hid the letter because she hated the Hales.”
Victoria rolled her eyes.
“She did hate us.”
“My mother hated people who wanted to inherit me before I was dead,” I said.
Victoria looked at me.
“Same thing to you.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Not even close.”
Caleb suddenly laughed.
It sounded broken.
“The lake house.”
Victoria’s face changed.
He looked at me.
“She told me you already knew.”
“About what?”
“What she put in your drink.”
The room went still.
Victoria snapped his name.
He kept going.
“She said it was a loyalty test.”
I almost smiled.
“A test for who?”
“For me.”
There it was.
Victoria had involved Caleb incrementally.
First secrecy.
Then small complicity.
Then enough guilt to make leaving dangerous.
A familiar method.
“You thought making me sick proved your loyalty?”
Caleb’s eyes filled with shame.
“I thought you were going to marry her and she wanted to know whether I would protect her if you turned on the Hales.”
I stared at him.
“And when I nearly stopped breathing?”
His face collapsed.
“I panicked.”
“What did she do?”
“She stayed calm.”
Of course she did.
Victoria always looked best during emergencies she expected.
I looked at her.
“You didn’t stay beside me because you loved me.”
She said nothing.
“You stayed because you wanted to watch.”
Her face hardened.
“That night failed.”
The words slipped out.
Caleb closed his eyes.
I felt something inside me freeze.
Not because she admitted it.
Because of the word.
Failed.
May you like
Annie had just saved me from attempt number two.
And Victoria was already speaking like someone who had planned for a third.
