Chapter 6 - What Lucas Found Before He Died
I didn't open the envelope until Grace and I were home.
Not because I wasn't curious.
Because I refused to let my father's secrets determine the first days of my daughter's life.
The doctors discharged us four days after delivery.
Samantha drove.
When we reached the house, I couldn't move.
The porch looked ordinary.
That was almost worse.
I remembered my knee hitting the concrete.
My water breaking.
Courtney laughing.
Charles standing over me.
Samantha turned off the engine.
"We don't have to stay here."
"Yes, we do."
"Victoria—"
"This is Grace's home."
I carried my daughter across the same porch where my father had tried to throw me away.
Deputy Mills had arranged for the locks to be changed.
The emergency key Charles once possessed was now useless.
Inside, the house smelled like Lucas.
Or maybe I imagined it.
His jacket still hung near the mudroom.
His coffee mug remained on a shelf.
His shoes were beside the back door.
Grief hit without warning.
I sat on the kitchen floor and cried.
Grace slept against my chest.
Samantha sat beside me.
Neither of us spoke.
Eventually I stood.
I fed Grace.
Changed her.
Put her into the bassinet Lucas had assembled.
Only then did I open the envelope.
Vic,
If you're reading this, I didn't get the chance to explain everything myself.
I hope that means I'm simply somewhere inconvenient and Samantha is being overly dramatic.
I laughed through tears.
Then continued.
But if I'm gone, I need you to separate two things: what I discovered and what you fear I discovered.
Charles has been moving company money. I believe Richard helped him. I have evidence of that.
I do NOT have evidence Charles intends physical harm to me or anyone else.
Please don't turn suspicion into certainty.
I stopped.
Even dead, Lucas was keeping me from becoming reckless.
The letter continued.
I changed the corporate protections because Charles's financial position is worse than he admits. If something happens to me, he may panic and attempt to gain access to my shares or our assets.
The house is yours.
The investments are protected.
Grace is protected.
You are protected.
Don't surrender any of them because someone tells you family requires sacrifice.
Family doesn't require you to let someone destroy you.
My vision blurred.
At the bottom:
One more thing.
There is a recording in my company safe.
Code: Grace's due date.
It will explain the conversation I had with Charles.
Love you always,
Lucas
The next morning, Samantha retrieved the recording with Martin present.
It was audio.
Lucas and Charles.
The date was nine days before Lucas died.
My father's voice came first.
"You don't understand what you're doing."
Lucas replied calmly.
"I'm requesting an audit."
"You'll destroy this company."
"If the books are clean, an audit destroys nothing."
"Don't lecture me about my company."
"It's our company."
Silence.
Then Charles:
"I built it."
"And I'm trying to protect it."
"You think Victoria will thank you when hundreds of employees lose their jobs?"
"Don't bring Victoria into this."
"She's my daughter."
"Then act like it."
I closed my eyes.
Charles's voice became quieter.
"You've always thought you're better than me."
"No."
"You married my daughter, bought your way into my company—"
"I invested when the company was six weeks from default."
Another silence.
I hadn't known that.
Lucas had saved Baldwin Logistics.
Not stolen it.
Charles continued.
"Withdraw the audit request."
"No."
"I can make your life extremely difficult."
"I know."
"You think those shares protect you?"
"No."
"Then what does?"
Lucas answered:
"The truth."
The recording ended.
No threat of violence.
No confession regarding the accident.
Just proof that Lucas confronted him.
Police later confirmed what I both needed and feared to hear.
There was no evidence that Charles caused Lucas's crash.
The investigation of the highway accident found a mechanical failure in another vehicle had triggered the collision.
Lucas's death had been exactly what it first appeared to be.
A terrible accident.
In some ways, that hurt more.
There was no villain to blame for losing him.
Only chance.
But what Charles did afterward belonged entirely to Charles.
The financial investigation moved quickly.
Richard cooperated.
Courtney provided records from the account in her name.
She also admitted Charles had told her the house would become theirs after Lucas's estate was "settled."
That explained her confidence.
She thought she'd be moving into my home.
The company board suspended Charles.
Then came the forged authorization.
Digital forensic records linked the document creation to a laptop assigned directly to his executive office.
Richard claimed Charles had ordered the document prepared.
Charles denied everything.
Through his attorney, he said I was manipulating the situation because of grief.
I didn't respond publicly.
I didn't need to.
Documents don't get angry.
Bank transfers don't grieve.
Metadata doesn't hold grudges.
Samantha taught me that.
Three weeks after Grace was born, I attended my first board meeting in person.
I wore a navy dress.
Lucas's watch was around my wrist.
It was too large.
I didn't care.
Martin met me outside.
"Nervous?"
"Terrified."
"Good."
"Good?"
"People who aren't nervous their first time controlling fifty-two percent of a company shouldn't control fifty-two percent of a company."
I laughed.
Inside, nobody sat at the head of the table.
That was new.
I took a seat halfway down.
The board voted to appoint an interim CEO.
Not me.
I didn't want it.
Instead, I established a committee for financial controls and employee protections.
Lucas hadn't left me a company because he expected me to become him.
He'd left me the power to stop someone else from destroying it.
Afterward, Martin gave me a box from Lucas's office.
Personal items.
Pens.
Photographs.
A Syracuse basketball mug.
A notebook.
Inside the notebook, Lucas had written ideas for Grace.
Teach her to ride a bike.
Take her to Lake Ontario.
Never let Charles choose her college.
I laughed so hard I cried.
At the bottom of the page:
Tell her her mother is the bravest person I know.
I pressed the notebook against my chest.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Courtney.
Can we meet?
I nearly deleted it.
Then another appeared.
I found something in Charles's apartment.
A photograph.
Lucas is in it.
So is Richard.
And there is one more person you need to see.
A photograph arrived.
I opened it.
Lucas stood outside a restaurant.
May you like
Richard beside him.
And between them was Samantha Vance.
