I heard it through Marianne’s updates, through Adrian’s pacing, through Clara’s silent prayers beside my bed.
Serena was found in the upstairs hallway, shaken but unharmed.
Victor was taken into custody without spectacle.
There was no dramatic speech. No grand confession shouted under flashing lights. Just a man in an expensive sweater asking for his attorney while agents carried boxes of documents out of the home he had filled with lies.
But what they found in his private office changed everything.
A copy of my forged insurance amendment.
Draft petitions for control of Julian’s inheritance rights.
A hidden file on Adrian Cross.
Medical correspondence from Dr. Bell.
And a sealed envelope labeled in Victor’s handwriting:
Marlow/Cross leverage.
Inside were Sofia’s unsent letter to Serena, Clara’s old notes, and a copy of the adoption trail Malcolm Cross had tried to bury.
Victor had not loved Serena.
