Chapter 5
Victor finally stopped pretending he did not know Rachel.
“She was unstable.”
William almost laughed.
He had heard that word before.
His father used it about Elena whenever she resisted him.
Now Victor was using it about her sister.
“What happened last night?”
Victor folded his arms.
“She panicked.”
“About what?”
“She thought people were after her.”
“They were.”
“No.”
William stepped closer.
“Emma saw you.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Children remember stories wrong.”
William’s voice dropped.
“Try saying that again without sounding afraid of a five-year-old.”
Victor looked away.
Damian spoke from beside the wall.
“Rachel took something.”
Victor turned sharply.
Too late.
William looked at Damian.
“What?”
Damian hesitated.
Victor snapped, “Shut up.”
William almost smiled.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Damian’s breathing changed.
He was afraid of Victor.
Interesting.
“What did Rachel take?”
Damian looked at William.
“A ledger.”
Victor cursed.
William’s eyes narrowed.
No paperwork, no formal account books. In the Parker family, “ledger” meant something older.
Names.
Debts.
Promises.
Who owed whom.
Who ordered what.
A private memory of power.
“Whose?”
Damian swallowed.
“Your father’s.”
William stared.
Vincent had kept his true decisions out of official channels. He preferred handwritten coded books locked away in rooms only a handful of people knew existed.
William had searched for those books after Vincent died.
Found none.
Apparently Elena had found one first.
“Why did Rachel have it?”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Because Elena stole it.”
William’s expression changed.
“She didn’t steal it.”
Victor scoffed.
“You don’t even know what’s inside.”
“No.”
William looked at Emma through the glass door.
“But I know my sister.”
Victor smiled.
“That’s the problem.”
William turned back.
Victor continued.
“You knew the sister who laughed with you at Christmas.”
His eyes hardened.
“You didn’t know the woman who found out what your father did.”
Silence.
William stepped closer.
“What did he do?”
Victor’s smile vanished.
And for the first time, William saw something unexpected in him.
Not contempt.
Fear.
May you like
Victor was not protecting himself from William.
He was still protecting Vincent.
