Chapter 10 - The Person Protecting Victoria Wasn't Who I Thought
Margaret brought the folder back.
She had never destroyed it.
That detail changed everything.
Eleven months earlier, Victoria asked her to remove the Hollis invoices before the foundation's annual review.
Margaret agreed because Victoria told her the payments exposed my father's private debts.
She believed disclosure would humiliate a dead man and devastate me while I was grieving Rachel.
So she hid the folder in her own home.
Then Sophia accused Victoria.
Margaret began reading it.
Inside was the detail none of us expected.
Victoria hadn't been the primary beneficiary of the diverted money.
My father had created Hollis to hide debts incurred by my younger brother, Michael.
Michael had struggled with gambling for years.
Dad repeatedly covered his losses.
After Dad died, Victoria continued.
The foundation money wasn't funding Victoria's lifestyle.
It was keeping Michael's creditors from exposing a problem that could destroy his marriage and career.
Three earlier clues suddenly aligned.
Victoria's obsession with the Carter name.
The continuing Hollis payments after Dad died.
Her willingness to sacrifice relationships rather than explain where the money went.
Rachel had discovered not one family secret but two.
Victoria had misused foundation funds.
And she'd done it largely to protect her youngest son.
That didn't excuse anything.
But it changed the emotional center of the betrayal.
My mother hadn't killed Rachel for personal enrichment.
If she'd caused Rachel's death, she'd done it while desperately protecting Michael.
And there was one more detail.
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Michael had been in St. Louis the night Rachel died.
He had told me he was in Memphis.
