Chapter 13: The Truth About Victoria
Chapter 13: The Truth About Victoria
The fire at Rossi Manor left behind more than charred walls.
It uncovered questions.
Too many things had happened too perfectly.
The explosions had drawn security away from the east wing.
The surveillance system had failed for exactly seventeen seconds.
The attackers had known the patrol routes.
Someone had planned the assault with inside knowledge.
As dawn broke over the estate, Leo Rossi stood in the security command room, watching the final moments before the attack replay across a dozen monitors.
Every frame told part of the story.
None revealed the whole truth.
Until Marcus paused the footage.
"There."
A figure appeared briefly at the servants' entrance.
Not one of the attackers.
A woman.
She wore a gray hood and carried a small black backpack.
The timestamp showed she had entered the property almost an hour before the fire.
Marcus zoomed in.
Leo's expression hardened.
Victoria.
For weeks after the cellar incident, Victoria Kensington had insisted she was innocent.
Her lawyers blamed stress.
Her family blamed misunderstandings.
The media described her as another victim of a tragic misunderstanding.
But Leo had never stopped investigating.
Now he finally had something tangible.
Marcus placed a folder on the table.
"We recovered this from her apartment."
Inside were bank records.
Encrypted emails.
Photographs of Rossi Manor taken from different angles.
And one item that immediately caught Leo's attention.
A blueprint.
Not of the mansion.
Of the underground safe room.
Only six people in the world should have known it existed.
Victoria was not one of them.
At the Metropolitan Detention Center, Victoria sat calmly across from Detective Elena Cruz.
Unlike previous interviews, there were no reporters outside.
No lawyers whispering in her ear.
Only silence.
Elena slid the blueprint across the table.
"Would you like to explain this?"
Victoria smiled faintly.
"I suppose Leo finally found it."
"So it belongs to you?"
"Yes."
"Who gave it to you?"
Victoria leaned back.
"No one."
"I stole it."
Elena frowned.
"You expect me to believe you acted alone?"
Victoria laughed softly.
"No."
"I expect you to believe I made my own choices."
Across town, Beatrice was helping Lily replant flowers damaged by the fire.
The little girl carefully pressed tiny rose bushes into fresh soil.
"Do flowers remember fires?" Lily asked.
Beatrice smiled.
"I don't think so."
"They only remember the sunlight afterward."
Lily thought about that for a moment.
"I want to remember sunlight."
"So do I."
Neither noticed Leo approaching until he spoke.
"We need to leave."
Beatrice immediately sensed something had changed.
"Did you find who attacked us?"
Leo nodded slowly.
"We found Victoria."
The interrogation continued through the afternoon.
For hours, Victoria answered every question with remarkable honesty.
Yes, she had copied security files.
Yes, she had hidden financial documents.
Yes, she had contacted Vincent Moreau.
Then came the answer no one expected.
"Did you ever love Leo Rossi?"
Victoria stared at the tabletop.
For the first time, her confidence disappeared.
"When I met him..."
She paused.
"I thought I did."
"What changed?"
"I realized..."
Her voice almost broke.
"I never wanted Leo."
"I wanted the life standing behind him."
"The power."
"The influence."
"The certainty."
She closed her eyes.
"I spent so long pretending that I eventually believed my own lie."
Detective Cruz studied her carefully.
"Then why hurt Lily?"
Victoria immediately looked up.
"I never wanted her dead."
"You locked a child with severe asthma inside a cellar."
"I know."
Tears gathered in her eyes.
"I kept telling myself it would only be for a few minutes."
"I wanted Leo to think Beatrice had failed."
"I thought..."
"If Lily stopped trusting her..."
"I could become important again."
The room fell silent.
It wasn't hatred that had driven Victoria.
It was desperation.
The desperate need to be chosen.
To matter.
To control something she feared losing.
None of it excused her actions.
But it explained them.
That evening, Leo visited the detention center alone.
Victoria looked surprised to see him.
"I wondered if you'd come."
"I needed answers."
"You already have them."
"No."
He remained standing.
"I still don't understand why."
Victoria looked through the small window at the fading sunset.
"Do you know what the worst feeling in the world is?"
Leo said nothing.
"It's not being hated."
"It's becoming invisible."
"When Lily stopped reaching for me..."
"When she smiled every time Beatrice entered the room..."
"I convinced myself she had stolen something from me."
Leo's voice remained calm.
"She didn't steal anything."
"She earned trust."
Victoria lowered her eyes.
"I know that now."
"I just understood it too late."
When Leo returned home, he found Beatrice reading beside Lily's bed.
The child had already fallen asleep with her favorite storybook resting across her chest.
Leo quietly motioned for Beatrice to join him in the hallway.
"Victoria confessed."
Beatrice looked down.
"I've been thinking about her."
Leo seemed surprised.
"After everything she did?"
Beatrice nodded.
"People aren't born wanting to hurt children."
"Something inside them breaks first."
Leo considered her words.
"You still feel compassion."
"I feel sad."
"For everyone."
"Lily."
"You."
"Even Victoria."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"I don't know if I could ever forgive her."
"You don't have to."
Beatrice answered gently.
"Forgiveness isn't forgetting."
"It's refusing to let someone else's darkness become your own."
The following morning, Victoria signed a full confession.
She accepted responsibility for her crimes.
She agreed to testify against Vincent Moreau and every accomplice involved in the attack on Rossi Manor.
As officers escorted her toward the courthouse transport vehicle, reporters shouted questions from every direction.
"Do you regret what you did?"
Victoria stopped walking.
She looked directly at the cameras.
"I regret confusing love with possession."
"I regret believing power could replace kindness."
"And most of all..."
She paused.
"I regret hurting a little girl who only wanted to feel safe."
She climbed into the vehicle without another word.
That afternoon, Lily found a tiny package waiting outside her bedroom.
Inside was a simple silver locket.
There was no signature.
Only a handwritten note.
May you never doubt that you are worthy of love exactly as you are.
Lily looked up at Beatrice.
"Who sent it?"
Beatrice read the note once.
Then quietly folded it.
"I think..."
"It came from someone who finally learned the difference between being admired..."
"...and being loved."
Outside the window, workers continued repairing Rossi Manor.
Broken walls could be rebuilt with stone.
Broken hearts required something far rarer.
Honesty.
May you like
And for the first time since darkness entered their lives, the truth—painful as it was—had finally begun to set them free.
End of Chapter 13
