Chapter 5 - VICTOIRE’S CONFESSION Victoire sat alone in the mansion’s breakfast room when Evelyn found her.
Victoire sat alone in the mansion’s breakfast room when Evelyn found her.
Morning sunlight poured across the table.
Without the burgundy gown, diamonds, and carefully constructed arrogance, Victoire looked younger.
Almost fragile.
Evelyn placed the ledger before her.
“Charles says I should ask you about the real business.”
Victoire closed her eyes.
“I knew this was coming.”
“Then start talking.”
For the first time, Victoire did.
She admitted she had known Evelyn’s identity for six months.
Henri had secretly contacted Evelyn because he believed Charles was preparing to transfer billions through a network of shell companies.
Victoire intercepted one of his messages.
She confronted Henri.
Henri told her everything.
Katherine.
Evelyn.
Charles.
The illegal network.
Victoire had been furious—not because Evelyn existed, but because her entire childhood had been built upon lies.
Then Charles approached her.
He convinced Victoire that Evelyn intended to take everything.
The estate.
The company.
Her inheritance.
Her father.
Charles weaponized Victoire’s jealousy.
But when Victoire discovered Henri imprisoned beneath the villa, she realized Charles had lied to her too.
“Why didn’t you free him?” Evelyn demanded.
Victoire looked ashamed.
“Because Charles threatened my mother.”
Evelyn froze.
Victoire’s mother, Madeleine, had supposedly been living in Paris.
She was not.
Charles had hidden her somewhere else.
Victoire agreed to play her role while secretly trying to bring Evelyn into the mansion.
“The pool?”
Victoire nodded.
“I needed you to call your security team.”
“You could have told me.”
“Charles monitored every phone.”
“So you shoved me into a pool?”
“I needed something believable enough to make you break cover.”
Evelyn almost laughed at the insanity.
“You humiliated me in front of a hundred people.”
“I know.”
“And Camille?”
Victoire’s expression changed.
“She was helping me.”
Evelyn stared.
Camille’s cruelty had been staged too.
Not all of it.
But enough.
Camille wanted revenge for her mother.
Victoire wanted her father freed.
Both believed Evelyn was the only person Charles did not fully understand.
Evelyn leaned against the table.
“You could have trusted me.”
Victoire looked at her.
“We were raised to believe trust was how people got killed.”
For the first time, Evelyn saw something familiar in her half-sister.
Fear disguised as strength.
Before Evelyn could respond, Marcus entered.
“We found Madeleine.”
Victoire stood so quickly her chair fell backward.
“Where?”
Marcus’s expression was grim.
“Warehouse near the marina.”
“Alive?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Victoire covered her mouth.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“But?”
Marcus looked at both women.
“She wasn’t alone.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
Camille was tied to a chair beside Madeleine.
And standing behind them was a man neither sister expected.
Henri Delacroix.
Their father.
The photograph had been taken less than an hour earlier.
Evelyn stared at it.
“That’s impossible. He’s in the hospital.”
May you like
Marcus shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
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