Chapter 4 - The Footsteps at Dawn
Three mornings later, Victoria woke alone.
She heard footsteps in the hallway outside her bedroom.
Damian appeared near the staircase wearing yesterday’s shirt. His hair was damp, and the top buttons were undone.
He froze when he saw her.
“You’re awake early.”
“So are you.”
Damian glanced toward the east wing.
Serena’s private suite occupied that side of the townhouse.
“She had a panic attack,” he said. “She was crying about your father.”
Victoria wanted to believe him.
Serena had struggled publicly after Edward’s death. She often spoke about loneliness, grief and the unbearable silence of sleeping alone.
But Serena’s door opened behind Damian.
She stepped out wearing a pink silk robe.
Her lipstick was gone.
Her face showed no sign that she had been crying.
“There you are,” Serena said to Damian before noticing Victoria.
The silence lasted only a second.
It felt much longer.
Serena recovered first.
“I called him because you wouldn’t wake up. I didn’t want to frighten you in your condition.”
Victoria placed a hand over her stomach.
“My condition?”
“Your pregnancy,” Serena replied quickly.
Damian moved toward Victoria, but she stepped back.
Later that morning, Serena presented receipts proving she had called Damian at 4:07 a.m.
The receipts proved a call had happened.
They did not prove what happened afterward.
Victoria took the documents to Elias.
The older lawyer listened without interrupting. When she finished, he locked his office door.
“Your father began questioning Serena’s financial activity six months before he died,” Elias said.
Victoria stared at him.
“What activity?”
“Transfers from a household account. Payments to consulting companies that no longer exist.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Edward asked me not to accuse anyone until he had proof.”
Elias opened a secure drawer and removed a sealed envelope.
Across the front, in Edward Vale’s handwriting, were five words:
May you like
For Victoria, when trust becomes dangerous.
👉 Inside her father’s envelope was not proof of betrayal—but a warning that someone close to Victoria would eventually try to control her.
