Chapter 8 - The Daughter’s Vengeance
Clara stepped forward, her pale-blue satin dress stained with the dark dust of the crawlspace she had helped breach.
Her green eyes burned with an icy brilliance that mirrored her father's legendary corporate ruthlessness.
"You thought I was stupid, didn't you, Victoria?" Clara challenged, staring down the woman who had tried to replace her mother.
Victoria glared back, wiping a smear of dark sauce from her ruined cheek with the back of her manicured hand.
"You were always a spoiled, meddling little brat," Victoria snarled, dropping all pretense of gentility.
"I noticed the discrepancies three weeks ago," Clara said, her voice steady and ringing through the vaulted room.
"The air conditioning system in the east wing had an irregular pressure drop beneath the main dining floor," Clara revealed.
"And then I found the hidden surveillance loop you spliced into the estate security system," Clara continued, pulling out a slim silver flash drive.
"Every time my father left for Europe, you ordered the mansion staff off-duty under the excuse of deep renovations," Clara said.
"Tonight, before the gala, I heard a faint metallic tapping coming through the air register near my bedroom," Clara stated.
"It was Morse code. The same code my mother taught me when I was ten years old," Clara whispered, her tears threatening to return.
Evelyn nodded through her tears, holding up her bruised knuckles that had tapped against the steel water pipes beneath the floor.
"I knew you were planning to announce your official wedding date tonight," Clara told Victoria with venomous satisfaction.
"So I went to the maintenance shed, took my father’s steel hammer, and waited for you to lift your champagne glass," Clara said.
Arthur looked at his twenty-four-year-old daughter, a wave of profound pride and gratitude washing over his battered soul.
May you like
"You saved her, Clara," Arthur said softly, his voice thick with emotion.
"I saved our family, Dad," Clara answered, stepping back to wrap both arms protectively around her mother once more.
