Chapter 6 - VICTORIA’S DEFENSEVictoria was released pending trial under strict conditions.
No contact with Florence.
No entry onto Ashford property.
No access to disputed accounts.
Her attorney issued a statement describing the foyer incident as a “family conflict involving emotionally charged estate matters.”
Edward read it twice.
Family conflict.
He hated language that flattened violence into disagreement.
Then Victoria requested to meet him through counsel.
Edward refused twice.
The third request included one sentence:
I have something Florence has not told you.
He agreed.
Attorney office.
Glass conference room.
No privacy beyond privilege neither shared.
Victoria entered wearing navy.
No emerald dress.
No dramatic makeup.
She looked tired.
Edward hated that part of him still recognized the person he had loved.
“You look awful,” she said.
“So do you.”
A ghost of their old banter.
Gone immediately.
Victoria sat.
“I’m sorry about what happened.”
Edward stared.
“About what happened?”
“I lost control.”
“You planned transfer documents.”
“I planned a conversation.”
“You prepared a forged signature.”
Her jaw tightened.
“My lawyer advised me not to discuss specifics.”
“Then why am I here?”
Victoria opened a folder.
Florence’s financial statements.
Edward stiffened.
“How do you have those?”
“Old copies.”
She pushed them across.
“There’s more money than she told you.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“No.”
“Edward, this isn't pocket change.”
He almost laughed.
“This is still your argument?”
“Listen.”
She showed him trust assets.
Properties.
Investment accounts.
Partnership interests.
Florence’s estate was worth far more than Edward assumed.
Nearly eighty million dollars.
He stared.
Not because he wanted it.
Because his mother had hidden that scale too.
Victoria leaned forward.
“She was going to give almost all of it away.”
“It’s hers.”
“She inherited most through your father.”
“Still hers.”
“It should stay with the family.”
“Why?”
Victoria looked genuinely confused by the question.
“Because that is what families do.”
Edward thought about Haven House.
“No.”
“That’s what control does.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“You've become very moral since throwing your wife onto a floor.”
Edward accepted the hit.
“I've been thinking about that.”
“You broke my jaw.”
“I intervened while you were attacking an elderly woman.”
“You enjoyed it.”
Edward went still.
“No.”
“Didn't you?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
He realized he meant it.
The rage had been terrifying, not satisfying.
Victoria seemed disappointed.
She wanted hypocrisy.
Something to make them equivalent.
They weren't.
Then she revealed the reason she requested the meeting.
Florence had once considered leaving Edward the mansion.
There was an older draft will.
Victoria possessed a copy.
Edward looked.
Two years old.
Before the cancer.
House to Edward.
A third of investments to him.
Charitable remainder elsewhere.
Victoria pointed.
“She changed everything after discovering my past.”
“Probably.”
“So she is punishing me through you.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she never asked me to leave you.”
Victoria stopped.
That mattered.
Florence could have exposed Victoria immediately.
Instead she prepared independent estate changes and waited because she didn't know what Victoria’s old history meant.
Victoria shifted.
“She always hated me.”
Edward shook his head.
“She defended you more than I did.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is.”
Victoria looked away.
Then Edward asked:
“Why did you marry me?”
Silence.
“Tell me one honest thing.”
She looked back.
“At first?”
His stomach tightened.
“At first, I wanted to meet you.”
“Because of Dad.”
“Yes.”
“And after?”
Victoria’s eyes filled unexpectedly.
“I fell in love with you.”
Edward felt nothing easy.
“Then why do this?”
“Love does not erase fear.”
“What were you afraid of?”
“Going back.”
“Back where?”
“To being nobody.”
There it was.
Victoria had grown up poor.
Built herself upward.
Lost her first corporate career.
Rebuilt.
Then entered the Ashford world.
Staff.
Cars.
Invitations.
Security.
Prestige.
She interpreted losing future inheritance not as becoming ordinary wealthy people.
But as falling.
Edward stared.
“We have our own money.”
“Not this money.”
“No.”
“Not this house.”
“No.”
“Not this name.”
Edward paused.
“The name?”
Victoria looked away.
He finally understood.
The obsession was never only assets.
Arthur had made Victoria feel disposable.
Marrying Edward transformed her into an Ashford.
Florence giving the ancestral estate away threatened the proof Victoria had finally become part of what once excluded her.
Edward said quietly:
“You built your entire life around forcing dead people to admit you mattered.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“You don't understand.”
“I think I finally do.”
He stood.
“Understanding isn't forgiveness.”
“Edward.”
“I loved you.”
Her face broke.
Past tense.
“I still love you.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“That makes this harder.”
Then he left.
No dramatic victory.
No relief.
Just grief.
May you like
Because a marriage could contain real love and still become unsafe.
Both could be true.
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