Chapter 4 - The Shadow of the Will
Victoria stood frozen against the white pillar, her dark eyes wide, staring at Richard as if he had struck her across the face.
"Leave?" Victoria echoed, a cold, bitter laugh escaping her throat. "You're kicking me out? Of our family home?"
"This is not your home, Victoria," Richard said, his voice flat, resolute, and cold as the marble beneath his boots. "You were invited here as a guest after my wife died. You were supposed to help me care for Leo. Instead, you've turned this house into a prison."
"I was protecting your legacy!" Victoria spat, taking a step forward, her cane striking the floor with a loud THUD. "You're soft, Richard! You spend your days weeping over Sarah's memory while the board of Sterling Enterprises systematically strips you of your voting shares! If I hadn't been managing the internal security—"
"You weren't managing security! You were spying on me!" Richard shouted, his face flushing dark red. "Elena told me everything. You've been searching my private vault! You've been going through Sarah's medical files!"
On the floor nearby, Elena had managed to push herself up to a sitting position against the wall, clutching her bruised elbow as she watched the confrontation in silence.
Victoria's gaze snapped toward Elena with venomous hatred, then returned to Richard. "Sarah was sick, Richard. She was sick long before her car went over the cliff at the lake. And you know as well as I do that her death wasn't an accident."
The air in the foyer instantly turned frigid.
Richard's breathing hitched. His hand holding Leo tightened slightly, his face turning pale. "What did you say?"
"You heard me," Victoria whispered, a dark, victorious smile slowly spreading across her lips as she leaned her weight onto her brass-headed cane. "I found the toxicology reports in the study drawer, Richard. The ones you tried to burn. Sarah didn't have a heart attack while driving. She was poisoned. With synthetic scopolamine."
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Richard didn't answer immediately. He stared at Victoria, his chest rising and falling in shallow, jagged gasps.
"And do you know who bought five hundred milligrams of scopolamine from the clinical lab in Geneva three weeks before she died?" Victoria continued, her voice dripping with toxic triumph. "Your signature is on the import manifest, brother."
