Chapter 5: The Marriage Was a Setup

Chapter 5: The Marriage Was a Setup

The recording was dated fourteen months earlier.

Four months before I met Victoria.

Daniel’s voice came first.

“Robert still wears his wedding ring on a chain. He won’t date anyone unless she reminds him of Elena.”

Victoria laughed.

“So I become the perfect replacement.”

“You learn Elena’s favorite music, her charities, her recipes. You make him believe fate brought you together.”

“And the daughter?”

“Lily controls twenty percent of the company when she turns eighteen. Until then, Robert manages the shares.”

Victoria’s tone sharpened.

“So we need both of them.”

“We need Robert to marry you. Then we isolate the girl, build a psychiatric history, and move her into long-term care.”

“And if Robert finds out?”

“He won’t. He trusts me with everything.”

I stopped the recording.

Every memory of my relationship with Victoria changed.

Our “accidental” meeting at a charity auction.

Her knowledge of Elena’s favorite song.

The way she had comforted Lily by cooking Elena’s old recipes.

None of it had been real.

Victoria had studied my grief.

Then she had worn it like a costume.

Detective Warren continued playing the files.

In another conversation, Victoria complained that I still kept Elena’s photograph beside my bed.

Daniel told her to be patient.

“Once you’re married, you control the house. Once Lily is gone, Robert will fall apart. That’s when we move the company assets.”

The plan was not only about Lily’s trust.

They intended to destroy Hale Global from inside, transfer the profitable divisions into shell companies, and leave me responsible for the debt.

By morning, both Victoria and Daniel had lawyers.

Victoria denied everything.

Daniel claimed the recordings were “fictional role-playing exercises.”

Then Victoria made her first counterattack.

She accused me of abusing her.

Her lawyer released photographs of bruises on her arms and a statement claiming I had threatened her during our marriage.

News outlets arrived outside the hospital.

Headlines appeared within hours.

BILLIONAIRE CEO ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

WIFE CLAIMS DAUGHTER WAS DANGEROUS.

The public did not see Lily’s wounds.

They saw Victoria crying in an expensive coat as she left the police station on bail.

“I tried to save that girl,” she told reporters. “But Robert refused to accept that his daughter needed help.”

At the hospital, Lily stared at the television.

“They believe her.”

I turned it off.

“Not everyone.”

“What if they do?”

I took her hand.

“The truth doesn’t become a lie because someone tells the lie louder.”

But inside, I knew Victoria had planned for this.

She had photographs.

Medical records.

Witnesses.

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