Chapter 5 - The Man My Aunt Protected
Victoria finally spoke at two in the morning.
Not because she wanted to.
Because Grant threatened to leave forever.
He stood in the library doorway with a duffel bag.
“Tell us or I'm gone.”
“You don't mean that.”
“I do.”
“Grant.”
“Who killed Caroline?”
Victoria looked twenty years older.
Then she sat.
“Marcus called me that night.”
Nobody moved.
“He was drunk.”
“What did he say?” I asked.
“That Caroline was going to destroy everything.”
My throat tightened.
“Then?”
“He said he'd handled it.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“You knew.”
“I didn't know what he meant.”
I almost laughed.
“You found out.”
“Later.”
“How much later?”
“Two days.”
The room became unbearably still.
Marcus confessed to Victoria that he had arranged for Caroline's brakes to be damaged.
He claimed he only wanted to frighten her.
That lie appeared often in crimes committed by cowards.
Just scare her.
Just teach her.
Just stop her temporarily.
My mother went down an embankment and died before paramedics arrived.
“Why didn't you call police?”
Victoria covered her face.
“Grant.”
My cousin looked up.
“He threatened him.”
“What?”
“Marcus said if I reported him, he'd reveal everything. The affair. Grant's paternity. The stolen money. He said David would take Grant away from me.”
Grant stared at her.
“So you protected a murderer to protect your reputation.”
“My son!”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“Don't make me the excuse.”
That silenced her.
He continued.
“I was a child. You decided for me that growing up with a killer nearby was better than being embarrassed.”
Victoria began crying.
Grant turned away.
I wanted rage.
Instead I felt something worse.
Emptiness.
My mother had been dead fifteen years because one man feared exposure and one woman feared scandal.
Such small motives.
Such permanent consequences.
“Where is Marcus?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Arthur did.
Or at least he knew where Marcus had been.
His phone last pinged near a private airfield.
Investigators notified police.
But Marcus never boarded.
His vehicle was found abandoned.
Inside was a passport.
Cash.
And a burner phone.
The phone contained one outgoing message sent after Grandpa's funeral.
To me.
My anonymous source.
I stared at the screen.
Marcus had been the one guiding me.
Why?
Arthur found a draft message.
HENRY FOUND OUT. HE WAS GOING TO TURN EVERYTHING OVER. I NEED VICTORIA TO TAKE THE FALL BEFORE THEY FIND ME.
There it was.
The anonymous messages weren't confession.
They were manipulation.
Marcus wanted me looking at Victoria while he escaped.
He had exposed enough truth to make her look like the killer.
Smart.
Except he underestimated one thing.
Victoria finally hated him more than she feared him.
She gave police access to a safe-deposit box.
Inside were fifteen years of letters.
Threats.
Financial records.
And a handwritten note from Marcus.
If Caroline keeps pushing, I will solve the problem permanently.
Dated four days before my mother's death.
The investigation became homicide.
Meanwhile, the estate lawsuit remained active.
Marcus's firm argued Grandpa lacked capacity.
Even with Marcus missing.
His partner continued the case.
Why?
Money.
Victoria's conditional $500,000 inheritance would disappear if she contested the estate.
She already had.
Meaning she stood to receive zero.
Unless the deed was invalidated.
Then intestate or prior-trust provisions might restore millions to her.
She had nothing left to lose.
The mansion was no longer just property.
May you like
It was her financial survival.
And a desperate Victoria was more dangerous than the triumphant woman who tried to throw me out.
