Chapter 6 - The Broken Mirror
The envelope lay on the white marble floor between them, its contents spilling out slightly—photographs, bank statements, and wire transfer receipts stamped with Canadian banking seals.
Victoria stared at the papers, her breath coming in short, shallow gasps.
"He told me... he said we were going to rebuild the estate together..." Victoria whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of the rain against the glass doors.
"Julian used you, Victoria," Richard said, his voice carrying a sudden, tragic tone of pity that cut deeper than his anger. "He knew you hated Sarah because our father left her the primary shares in Sterling Enterprises. He fed your jealousy. He gave you that cane after your accident, and he taught you to use fear to control everyone in this house."
"No... no!" Victoria screamed, shaking her head violently, her brown bob swinging wild around her face. "You're lying! You're trying to turn me against him so I won't testify!"
She raised her black ebony cane high into the air, holding it like a club, her face distorted in a mask of pure hysteria.
"I helped him!" Victoria shrieked. "I put the drops in Sarah's tea every night for two weeks! I did it for us!"
The admission hung in the air like a heavy, suffocating cloud.
Richard didn't move. He didn't flinch as she stood before him with the raised cane.
He simply looked down at the digital recorder still running in his left hand, its tiny red recording light blinking silently in the warm amber light of the foyer.
"Thank you, Victoria," Richard said softly. "That was all the prosecutor needed."
Victoria froze. Her arm remained suspended mid-air, holding the heavy ebony cane above her head.
The realization of what she had just said hit her like a physical blow. Her eyes opened wide in sheer, unadulterated horror as she looked at the blinking red light on the small silver box in Richard's palm.
She had confessed. Out loud. In front of a recording device, in a foyer with a witness listening upstairs.
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The cane slipped from her fingers.
It fell onto the polished marble floor with a loud, clattering bang, bouncing twice before rolling across the smooth stone, coming to a rest against the base of the grand staircase.
