[CHAPTER 4]: What Victoria Was Planning
Michael gave me the storage-unit number.
Detective Monroe gave me a lecture.
“You could have been killed.”
“I wasn’t.”
“That is not a defense.”
“He gave us evidence.”
“That part I appreciate.”
We stood beside my car while officers questioned Michael twenty yards away.
He had voluntarily surrendered his identification, fingerprints, and DNA to prove who he was.
Monroe still didn’t trust him.
Neither did I.
But I believed one thing.
He was terrified of Victoria.
I recognized that fear now.
Lily wore it too.
By late afternoon, police confirmed Michael’s fingerprints matched records from before his disappearance.
Michael Hale was alive.
The news had not been released publicly.
Monroe wanted it kept that way.
“If Victoria learns he resurfaced,” she said, “her behavior may become unpredictable.”
“It already is.”
“More unpredictable.”
I hated imagining what that meant.
Police could not simply break into the storage unit because Michael had seen Victoria there.
They needed a warrant.
While Monroe worked on that, another piece of evidence arrived.
The old home-security company had recovered cloud recordings.
I watched them at the police station.
The first video lasted thirty-eight seconds.
Victoria stood in Lily’s bedroom.
Lily was crying.
Victoria pointed toward the wall.
“I told you to stand straight.”
“My legs hurt.”
“Then maybe tomorrow you’ll remember not to spill juice.”
I gripped the edge of the table.
Victoria leaned close to my daughter.
“And what happens if Daddy asks why you’re sad?”
Lily whispered, “I say I miss Mommy Emily.”
“That’s right.”
My vision blurred.
She had used Emily’s death.
She had taught Lily to blame her sadness on the mother she barely remembered.
The second video was worse.
Lily sat at the kitchen table with an untouched plate across from her.
Victoria ate calmly.
“You can have dinner when you apologize.”
“I said sorry.”
“You didn’t mean it.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Then mean it.”
The recording ended.
I stood.
Monroe said my name.
I walked to the wall.
I wanted to hit something.
Instead, I pressed both palms against the cold paint.
“She was hungry.”
“I know.”
“I was in Chicago that night.”
Monroe didn’t answer.
“I remember calling.”
My voice cracked.
“Victoria told me Lily had eaten macaroni and fallen asleep.”
Guilt came in waves.
Every ordinary memory had become evidence.
Every text.
Every missed call.
Every cheerful photograph Victoria had sent while I traveled.
I sat again.
“There are seventeen clips,” Monroe said.
“I’ll watch all of them.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
She studied me.
“Why?”
“Because Lily lived them.”
I watched seventeen.
In one, Victoria forced Lily to sit alone in the dark hallway.
In another, she tore the stuffed rabbit from her hands.
In another, Margaret Hale appeared.
That recording changed the investigation.
Margaret stood beside Victoria while Lily faced the wall.
My mother-in-law held a cup of tea.
“She cries too easily,” Margaret said.
“She’s spoiled.”
“That’s Daniel’s fault.”
Victoria crossed her arms.
“He treats her like Emily was a saint.”
Margaret smiled thinly.
“Dead women always become saints.”
I felt rage rise through me.
Then Margaret crouched beside Lily.
“Your daddy likes good girls.”
Lily sniffled.
“I’m good.”
“No.”
Margaret tapped her forehead.
“Good girls do not make adults angry.”
My hands shook.
Victoria watched.
She did nothing.
Margaret continued.
“If you upset your father enough, he’ll send you away.”
Lily burst into tears.
The video ended.
Monroe paused the screen.
“That is psychological abuse.”
I stared at Margaret’s frozen face.
“I want her away from Lily.”
“She will be.”
“Tonight.”
“We are working on emergency protective orders.”
My phone rang.
Nathan.
“The judge granted a temporary restraining order against Victoria.”
I exhaled.
“And Margaret?”
“I filed one thirty minutes ago after Monroe sent the video.”
“Good.”
“There’s something else.”
There was always something else.
“Victoria filed for divorce.”
I almost laughed.
“Wonderful.”
“She is alleging emotional abuse.”
“Of course she is.”
“And financial coercion.”
“What?”
“She claims you controlled all household money and isolated her from independent assets.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“I gave her unrestricted access.”
“I know.”
“She spent more last year than most people earn in ten.”
“I know.”
I stopped.
Nathan’s tone told me I was missing something.
“What?”
“She transferred money yesterday.”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.”
My pulse jumped.
“From where?”
“A joint brokerage account.”
“Where did it go?”
“We’re tracing it.”
“When?”
“Three hours before you got home.”
That mattered.
Victoria had moved money before she knew my trip ended early.
Meaning something had already been planned.
“Why yesterday?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked at Monroe.
“Tell the detective.”
Nathan did.
Monroe’s expression changed.
“Could she have been preparing to leave?”
“Maybe.”
I thought of Lily at the sink.
The punishment had seemed deliberate.
But what if it was more than punishment?
What if Victoria knew she was leaving?
What if she had stopped caring whether marks were visible?
“What was supposed to happen while I was gone?” I whispered.
Monroe heard me.
“We need that storage unit.”
The warrant came at 9:20 that night.
I wasn’t allowed inside during the search.
Monroe called me two hours later.
“Daniel.”
Her voice was unusually careful.
“What did you find?”
“Documents.”
“What kind?”
“Financial records. Copies of your estate plan. Notes about Lily’s trust.”
My chest tightened.
“What notes?”
“Handwritten calculations.”
“By who?”
“We’ll need comparison samples.”
I already knew.
“What else?”
“A passport application.”
“For Victoria?”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
“For Lily?”
“Yes.”
Lily already had a passport.
A valid one locked in my office safe.
“Why would she need another?”
“The application uses a different last name.”
I felt sick.
“What name?”
“Hale.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Victoria was planning to take her.”
“We can’t conclude that yet.”
“I can.”
“There’s more.”
I waited.
“Photographs of you.”
“What kind?”
“You entering restaurants. Leaving hotels. Meeting business associates.”
I frowned.
“Surveillance?”
“Looks like it.”
“Why?”
“Some photographs are labeled.”
“With what?”
“Dates. Women’s names.”
I understood.
“She was building an infidelity case.”
“That’s one possibility.”
“But I haven’t cheated.”
“I’m not saying you did.”
Then Monroe said something worse.
“We also found prescription bottles with your name on them.”
My stomach dropped.
“I don’t take prescriptions.”
“I know.”
“What medication?”
“A sedative.”
I stared out the hospital-room window.
The Pacific was black beyond the glass.
“You think she planned to drug me.”
“I think we need laboratory analysis.”
I remembered Michael waking on a burning boat.
My skin went cold.
“Detective.”
“Yes?”
“If I hadn’t come home early…”
She did not answer.
Neither of us needed her to.
A minute later, my phone buzzed.
Victoria.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
She didn’t say hello.
“You went into my storage unit.”
I froze.
The police had been careful.
“How do you know?”
“You think I don’t know what happens around me?”
Her voice was calm again.
That frightened me most.
“What were you planning?”
“Planning?”
“The passport.”
Silence.
“The drugs.”
Another silence.
“Victoria.”
“You’ve already decided I’m evil.”
“I came home and found you terrorizing Lily.”
“You came home at an inconvenient moment.”
My blood went cold.
“Inconvenient?”
“You always believed timing was everything in business.”
She laughed softly.
“You should have stayed in San Francisco, Daniel.”
The call ended.
I immediately contacted Monroe.
While I waited for her to answer, another message arrived.
This one from Michael.
MARGARET KNOWS I’M ALIVE.
May you like
Then another.
SHE’S COMING FOR THE EVIDENCE.
