Chapter 17 - The Account Behind the Affair
Detectives entered the ballroom with a warrant prepared from Mara’s archived evidence.
Damian tried to leave through the kitchen corridor.
Security stopped him before he reached the door.
Serena remained on the floor.
Her humiliation was complete, but Victoria felt no satisfaction yet.
Public shame was not justice.
The investigation uncovered the rest over the following weeks.
Cross Meridian Partners had been funded with money Serena diverted from Edward’s household accounts.
Damian used the company to pay Dr. Pierce.
He also paid three Vale Holdings employees to alter calendars, delete messages and create the appearance that Victoria was becoming forgetful.
One board member had agreed to introduce the emergency vote.
Another planned to testify that Damian had already been running the company for months.
The affair began more than a year before Edward’s death.
Damian met Serena while negotiating a Vale property contract. Together, they decided he would pursue Victoria.
His proposal, his support during her grief and even the housewarming celebration had been parts of the same plan.
They expected Victoria to inherit directly.
They did not know Edward had transferred the controlling shares into a protected trust shortly before his death.
When Damian learned Victoria was pregnant, he accelerated the scheme. A child would complicate any future challenge to the estate.
Their greatest mistake was believing pregnancy made Victoria weak.
Dr. Pierce surrendered his emails and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
The bribed employees provided statements.
Mara recovered deleted messages in which Serena wrote:
Once she signs, Damian marries me after the baby is born. Until then, we keep her calm and isolated.
Damian had replied:
She still believes I love her.
Victoria read the message only once.
Then she closed the file.
She no longer needed to understand how he could fake love.
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She needed to decide what kind of life she would build after surviving it.
👉 The evidence finally cleared Victoria’s name, but the last letter from her father revealed why he had distrusted Serena before anyone else did.
