Chapter 6 - The Trap Called Protection
Over the next two weeks, Damian slowly removed pieces of Victoria’s independence.
He told the driver she no longer needed to visit the office every day.
He instructed the household staff to route all calls through him.
He asked the board to send financial reports directly to his email so Victoria would not feel overwhelmed.
Whenever she objected, Serena reminded everyone that stress could harm the baby.
“You’re frightening her,” Serena would say.
Damian would apologize.
Then he would continue.
During a board meeting, Victoria discovered that Damian had already presented himself as the company’s acting executive.
“I never approved that title,” she said.
Damian leaned closer.
“It’s temporary.”
“Then why is it printed on the agenda?”
The room became silent.
Three board members avoided Victoria’s eyes.
After the meeting, Elias showed her an email supposedly written by Victoria. It authorized Damian to negotiate on her behalf.
Victoria had never sent it.
The message had come from her account.
Someone knew her password.
Someone had also begun building a record that made her appear forgetful.
Appointments were moved without telling her.
Documents disappeared and reappeared.
Staff members received contradictory instructions under her name.
Then Serena began telling people Victoria had become emotional since the pregnancy.
Not unstable.
Not yet.
Just emotional.
It was careful language.
Language designed to grow more serious later.
Mrs. Elena Alvarez, the Vale family’s longtime house manager, noticed it too.
“I served your mother,” Elena told Victoria quietly. “I know what concern looks like. What they’re doing is not concern.”
That night, Elena saw Serena entering Edward’s former study with a copied key.
When Elena confronted her, Serena fired her.
Damian supported the decision.
Victoria arrived home to find Elena standing beside the front door with two suitcases.
Before leaving, Elena pulled Victoria into an embrace.
May you like
“Check the clasp,” she whispered. “Your father had someone change it before he died.”
👉 Elena’s final warning led Victoria to the hidden mechanism inside the necklace—and to the first person who understood what Edward had created.
