Chapter 6 - Victoria's Secret Gambit
Victoria Ashford did not accept defeat gracefully. Sitting in her grand estate in Beacon Hill, surrounded by ancient family portraits that felt more alive than she was, she stared at her phone. Nathaniel hadn't answered her calls in two weeks. He had missed three board meetings at Ashford Industries, and rumors were circulating that he was spending his afternoons at public parks and children's museums.
“She’s turning him against me,” Victoria whispered to her private investigator, an unscrupulous man named Arthur Vance. “She’s using those children to steal my son and control the family fortune.”
“What do you want to do, Mrs. Ashford?” Vance asked, placing a manila folder on her desk. “Evelyn Brooks’ company is virtually bulletproof. Her financials are clean, and her reputation in the branding industry is immaculate. There is no scandal to exploit.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed into malicious slits. “Everyone has a weakness, Vance. If we cannot destroy her company, we destroy her stability. Find out who her suppliers are. Find out who her primary investors were when she started. There must be something we can squeeze.”
Vance hesitated, then pulled out a single sheet of paper from the bottom of the file. “There is one thing. Four years ago, when she left the Ashford house, she received an anonymous seed investment of fifty thousand dollars to start her firm. That money came from a private trust fund linked to a shell company in Delaware.”
Victoria snatched the paper, her eyes widening as she read the registration details. A slow, twisted smile spread across her face. “Well, well, well... isn't this delicious? The shell company belongs to Julian Whitcomb—Claire’s older brother.”
Victoria laughed—a dry, chilling sound. Julian Whitcomb had been Evelyn’s close friend in college before Evelyn married Nathaniel. When the Ashfords forced Evelyn out, Julian had secretly funded her new business venture to help her survive, knowing his own family would be furious if they found out.
“Evelyn Brooks thinks she’s a self-made woman,” Victoria mocked, her voice dripping with venom. “But her precious company was built on Whitcomb money. If I leak this to the press, it will look like Evelyn was having an affair with Julian while she was married to Nathaniel, and that those triplets might not even be Ashfords after all. The scandal will ruin her branding firm overnight, and the courts will have no choice but to grant us custody while her life is investigated.”
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“But Mrs. Ashford,” Vance warned, “if you claim the triplets aren't Ashfords, you lose the legacy you wanted.”
“I don't care about the legacy anymore!” Victoria snarled, her sanity fraying. “I care about winning. I want that woman broken, and I want my son back under my control.”
