Chapter 4 - Victoria Was Drugged Too
Victoria sat motionless.
For years, Edward had brought her small white pills.
He said they came from a discreet private physician.
She trusted her brother.
Jonathan’s tape said he sent one tablet to a laboratory.
The drug was real.
The prescription was not.
Then Jonathan discovered someone had begun putting the same sedative
into his whiskey.
Walter remembered Jonathan stopped drinking for a while.
Then Edward started bringing him tea.
Daniel called the hospital where Jonathan died.
Archived records confirmed a sedative in his blood.
The level was dangerous for someone with Jonathan’s heart condition.
Yet the death had been ruled natural because a family member told
investigators Jonathan was prescribed the medication.
That family member was Edward.
Evelyn whispered, “Jonathan told me he was afraid.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I was afraid too.”
The morning after Jonathan died, lawyers arrived and told Evelyn she had
no legal claim to Daniel.
Victoria stared at her.
“I never sent them.”
Walter said, “Edward controlled the estate.”
The third tape was dated the day before Jonathan’s death.
Jonathan said he confronted Edward.
Edward denied poisoning him.
Then Edward showed him something unexpected.
A document transferring Evelyn’s trust.
It carried Victoria’s signature.
Victoria stood.
“I never signed that.”
Jonathan’s recording continued.
“If Victoria’s signature was forged, Edward is finished. Tomorrow I’m
meeting the bank manager.”
Jonathan died the next evening.
Walter knew the banker was still alive.
Samuel Reed, eighty-nine, lived in a nursing home.
When Daniel showed him Jonathan’s photograph, Samuel remembered.
Edward had brought documents transferring Evelyn’s trust.
One carried Victoria’s signature.
Another carried Evelyn’s.
Both were supposedly witnessed by Caroline Ashford.
Evelyn had signed nothing.
Samuel initially refused the transfer.
Then his daughter was arrested after drugs appeared in her car.
Edward visited him.
“He told me families survive when people know when to stop asking
questions.”
Samuel authorized the transfer out of fear.
He had kept a photocopy for twenty-two years.
Caroline’s signature was there.
Police went to her house.
She was gone.
She left one note.
I did what I had to do to protect Victoria.
Daniel had heard enough people use that word.
Protect.
Every act of control seemed to hide behind it.
Then Evelyn revealed another secret.
The week before Daniel’s eighteenth birthday, Edward came to her with
photographs of Daniel driving, studying, and spending time with friends.
He told Evelyn that revealing the truth would cost Daniel everything.
She stayed silent.
Daniel looked at her.
“I would’ve chosen you.”
“You were eighteen.”
“I still would have.”
“I know that now.”
Police found Caroline at Edward’s lakeside cottage.
She agreed to talk.
Her first statement stunned everyone.
“I forged Victoria’s signature.”
Then she added:
“But Edward didn’t kill Jonathan.”
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According to Caroline, Jonathan was alive after Edward left the mansion.
The last person alone with him was Evelyn.
