Chapter 8 - Victoria Knew About Rose Carter
Victoria entered Arthur’s office while Rebecca was cataloging the
documents.
She saw Rose’s name.
Her face changed.
Arthur noticed.
“You knew.”
Victoria denied it.
Then Rebecca showed her an email recovered from old corporate archives.
Twelve years earlier, Victoria had asked company counsel:
Are any Rose Carter records still discoverable?
Victoria sat down.
She had been twenty-six when she found a sealed file in Charles’s
office.
Inside were copies of Rose’s complaints and the fake settlement.
Victoria realized her uncle had hidden something.
“Why didn’t you tell Dad?” I asked.
She looked at Arthur.
“Because Charles paid for my first company.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Victoria had taken $400,000 from Charles to launch her business.
She convinced herself it was family money.
Later she understood it might have come from the same network Rose
exposed.
By then, admitting the truth meant admitting her own benefit.
Victoria whispered:
“I didn’t hurt your mother.”
May you like
I believed she was telling the truth about that.
But she had protected the silence around what happened afterward.
