Chapter 6 - HIS MOTHER KNEW
Damian didn’t shout.
That scared Victoria more.
“What did you say?”
His mother stepped into the room.
“I knew there was a possibility.”
“No. You said you knew.”
Victoria’s face remained controlled.
She had spent sixty years turning emotion into a weapon no one could use against her.
“Damian—”
“How long?”
Celeste slipped backward.
Damian pointed at her.
“You stay.”
Celeste stopped.
Victoria sighed.
“Three days after the accident, I received a phone call.”
“From whom?”
“A man who claimed Eliza was alive.”
Anna gripped the back of a chair.
“What man?”
“I never got his name.”
Damian’s voice dropped.
“What did he want?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
“Ten million dollars.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I believed it was a scam.”
“You believed?”
“He had no proof.”
Anna whispered, “Did he describe me?”
Victoria looked at her.
“He said you were injured. Confused. That you didn’t remember your name.”
Damian stepped forward.
“You knew that detail two years ago?”
Victoria nodded once.
His control snapped.
He swept a vase from the table.
It smashed against the wall.
Anna jumped.
Celeste gasped.
Victoria didn’t move.
“You let me bury her!”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From my wife being alive?”
“From false hope!”
“You could have told the police!”
“I did.”
Damian froze.
Victoria continued.
“Quietly. They traced the call to a disposable phone. Nothing came from it.”
“Then why didn’t I know?”
“Because you were barely functioning. You weren’t sleeping. You weren’t eating. Oliver cried every night. I made a decision.”
“It wasn’t your decision to make.”
“No,” Victoria said softly. “It wasn’t.”
For the first time, regret broke through.
Anna stepped forward.
“What else did the man say?”
Victoria looked uncomfortable.
“Mother.”
“He said…”
“What?”
“He said Eliza had learned something she wasn’t supposed to know.”
Anna’s breath caught.
Damian stared at her.
“About what?”
“He didn’t say.”
Celeste suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned.
“This has gone too far.”
Damian narrowed his eyes.
“What’s funny?”
“Every five minutes someone reveals another secret. Your mother gets mystery phone calls. The maid gets memory flashes. A random attacker appears. Don’t you see what’s happening?”
“What?”
“You’re being manipulated.”
Anna stared at her.
“By who?”
Celeste pointed directly at her.
“By you.”
Oliver’s small voice came from the hallway.
“Don’t yell at Mommy.”
Everyone turned.
The nanny stood behind him, embarrassed.
“He woke up.”
Oliver ran to Anna again.
Celeste’s face twisted.
“Stop calling her that.”
Oliver looked at her.
Children could be brutally simple.
“I don’t like you.”
A few people almost smiled.
Celeste didn’t.
Oliver hid behind Anna’s leg.
Then he stared at Celeste’s bracelet.
His little face changed.
“That’s Mommy’s.”
Celeste looked down.
A thin diamond bracelet circled her wrist.
Damian knew it.
He had bought it for Eliza in Paris.
He had been told it disappeared in the crash.
He looked at Celeste.
“Where did you get that?”
May you like
Celeste slowly covered the bracelet with her hand.
And for the first time that night, she had no answer.
