Chapter 6 - Victoria’s Secret Account
Dominic wanted to confront Victoria immediately.
I stopped him.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“No?”
“If she photographed my mother, she already knows we’re suspicious.”
“She threatened your family.”
“Which is exactly why you don't charge into a room angry.”
“I don't charge.”
“You absolutely do. You just do it quietly.”
Daniel coughed, badly disguising a laugh.
Dominic glared at him.
I continued.
“We need evidence.”
“We have evidence.”
“A blurry reflection.”
“I know my wife.”
“That isn't admissible.”
“I’m not taking her to court.”
My expression changed.
Dominic saw it.
“I mean yet.”
“Excellent recovery.”
He exhaled and paced toward the windows.
For a man who built his reputation on control, uncertainty seemed to be the one opponent he did not know how to tolerate.
Adrian returned an hour later with financial records.
And that was when everything changed.
He placed three statements on the table.
“I found the destination of part of the thirty-two million.”
Dominic looked down.
“Where?”
“Helix Crown.”
I expected that.
Then Adrian added, “But Helix didn't keep it.”
He showed us another transaction.
The money moved from Helix Crown to a Luxembourg fund.
From Luxembourg to a Swiss trust.
Then through an American charitable foundation.
Finally into a company registered in Delaware.
Margrave Strategic Holdings.
“Who owns it?” I asked.
“We don't know.”
Daniel frowned.
“Beneficial owner hidden?”
“Yes.”
I studied the transaction dates.
Something seemed strange.
“These transfers begin eighteen months ago.”
Adrian nodded.
“Correct.”
“That’s before the current agreement.”
Dominic understood.
“So the theft didn't begin with the contract.”
“No,” I said. “The contract is the endgame.”
We began assembling a timeline.
Twenty-two months ago: Feldman published a paper on treaty asymmetry.
Eighteen months ago: money began moving.
Fourteen months ago: Dominic initiated negotiations for the European port facilities.
Nine months ago: Maison Étoile hired me.
Six months ago: Victoria increased her control over Helix Crown.
Three months ago: the German appendix was introduced.
Two days ago: Daniel received the altered version.
Last night: I discovered it.
One fact stood out.
“Who suggested acquiring the European facilities?” I asked.
Dominic looked toward Adrian.
Adrian’s expression tightened.
“Victoria.”
There it was.
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
Daniel said, “We need to find her.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
This time, Victoria’s name appeared.
He answered.
“Where are you?”
Her voice trembled.
“Dominic, listen to me before you say anything.”
“Did you photograph Mary Miller?”
Silence.
My heart pounded.
“Yes.”
My hands clenched.
Dominic’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Why?”
“I wasn't threatening her.”
“You sent the photos.”
“No.”
“Then why were you there?”
Victoria began crying.
“Because I was trying to figure out why Feldman cared about Casey.”
I stared at the phone.
“What?”
Victoria heard me.
“You’re there.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you are.”
“Why were you following my mother?”
“Feldman mentioned her.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“You knew Feldman before the contract?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
Dominic physically recoiled.
Three years.
Before the port acquisition.
Before my restaurant job.
Possibly before Feldman recruited me.
Victoria continued.
“He advised my father.”
“On what?”
“Helix.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“And after your father died?”
“I kept him.”
“For what?”
“Financial strategy.”
“You hired a linguistics professor for financial strategy?”
“He knew international treaties.”
“So did a thousand lawyers.”
“He was different.”
“Yes,” I said. “He was willing to commit fraud.”
Victoria snapped, “I didn't know that.”
“You knew the agreement had changed.”
“I thought it protected me.”
“From whom?”
She went silent.
Dominic whispered, “From me?”
Victoria’s voice cracked.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Your organization.”
Something passed through Dominic’s expression.
Not anger.
Pain.
“My organization?”
“You think I never hear things?”
“What things?”
“That if something happened to you, I would have nothing.”
“You own half our personal assets.”
“Personal assets, yes. Not the companies. Not the ports. Not the properties held through family structures.”
“You wanted my companies.”
“I wanted security.”
“You tried to take them.”
“I didn't understand what Feldman had built.”
I believed that part.
Maybe not because Victoria was innocent.
But because Feldman’s architecture was complicated enough that even an MBA might see only the surface.
I asked, “Who sent the photographs?”
“I don't know.”
“Who knew you had them?”
“Feldman.”
“Anyone else?”
A pause.
“Adrian.”
Every head in the room turned toward Dominic’s CFO.
Adrian went pale.
Dominic stared at him.
“Explain.”
Adrian stood.
“I saw Victoria in Ohio because—”
“You were there?”
“No. She told me.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Why?”
“She asked me to investigate Casey Miller.”
I felt sick.
Dominic stood.
“You investigated her?”
Adrian lifted his hands.
“Public records only.”
“My mother’s clinic isn't public.”
“I never photographed her.”
Victoria said through the phone, “That's true. I did.”
Dominic looked between Adrian and the phone.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Adrian hesitated.
Wrong move.
Dominic noticed.
“So you were protecting Victoria.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Adrian looked toward me.
His face had changed.
Not guilty.
Terrified.
“Dominic, there is something you need to understand.”
“What?”
“I didn't move the thirty-two million.”
“You just showed us the transfers.”
“I found them.”
“Using your credentials.”
“Yes.”
“Then who?”
Adrian swallowed.
“My credentials were cloned.”
Daniel stood.
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“You didn't notice?”
“Whoever did it mirrored my normal access patterns.”
I said, “Feldman?”
Adrian shook his head.
“He doesn't have that capability.”
“Then Margrave?”
His silence answered.
Dominic's voice became low.
“What is Margrave?”
Adrian looked at us.
“I started investigating it six months ago.”
“And?”
“It isn't a company.”
“What is it?”
“A network.”
“Owned by whom?”
“I don't know.”
“Adrian.”
“I don't know.”
He pulled a flash drive from inside his jacket.
“I copied everything I found.”
Dominic took it.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the last person who investigated Margrave disappeared.”
The room became silent.
Victoria whispered through the phone, “Dominic…”
He stared at Adrian.
“Who?”
Adrian’s next words changed the entire case.
“Victoria’s father.”
Nobody moved.
Victoria stopped crying.
“What did you say?”
Adrian looked toward the phone.
“Your father wasn't killed by a heart attack.”
Victoria’s breathing stopped.
“He discovered someone was using Helix Crown to move money.”
Dominic asked, “Who?”
Adrian shook his head.
“He never found out.”
I looked at the diagram on the whiteboard.
Feldman.
Victoria.
Helix.
Dominic.
My research.
All of us thought we were looking at individual betrayals.
What if they were only pieces?
“What happened to Victoria’s father’s records?” I asked.
Victoria answered.
“Destroyed.”
“All of them?”
“I thought so.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Where did he work?”
“His private study was in their family house in Connecticut.”
Victoria suddenly inhaled.
“What?”
Dominic asked.
She whispered:
“The books.”
“What books?”
“My father kept handwritten notes inside books.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
She began breathing faster.
“There were thousands.”
I looked at Daniel.
Then at Dominic.
Then the flash drive in his hand.
For the first time, we had something more valuable than suspicion.
We had a dead man who had discovered the conspiracy before us.
May you like
And somewhere inside an old Connecticut house, he might have left behind the reason he had died trying to expose it.
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