Chapter 12 - The Final Ten Minutes
Marcus put the phone on speaker.
"How do you know where we are?" he asked.
Victoria ignored him. "Elena, you should ask why Marcus's father kept those tapes."
Elena stared at her husband.
"Stop," Marcus said.
Victoria gave a small laugh. "Still protecting him. How noble."
The call ended.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Elena pressed play.
Static. Celeste crying. A door opening.
A man's voice entered.
Marcus's father, Richard Blackwood.
"Victoria, that's enough."
Young Victoria answered, "You wanted results."
"I wanted treatment. Not this."
"Your sister is unstable without me."
"You made her unstable."
Elena looked at Marcus.
The tape continued.
Richard threatened to expose the experiment. Victoria threatened to expose Richard's financial fraud. Then Celeste screamed, and the recording cut.
A second tape revealed the aftermath: Richard helped bury the scandal to save Blackwood Holdings. He married Victoria six months later.
Marcus stood so fast his chair fell.
"He married her after that?"
Owen nodded grimly. "She had evidence that could put him in prison. He had evidence that could destroy her. They built a marriage out of mutual blackmail."
Marcus walked outside into the rain.
Elena followed.
He turned on her. "My whole life, he told me she saved this family."
"Maybe that's how he survived what he did."
"Don't make excuses for him."
"I'm not. I'm explaining the lie."
Marcus broke then, not loudly. He bent forward with both hands on his knees, breathing like he'd been hit.
Elena touched his shoulder.
"We don't become them," she said. "That's the only thing we control."
His phone buzzed.
A video message.
The screen showed their nursery at Blackwood Estate.
Victoria stood beside the crib, wearing the crimson dress.
This time there was no blur, no mirror, no question.
She smiled into the camera.
May you like
"Come home, Elena. Bring the tapes. We can end this like family."
Then she lifted one of Elena's ultrasound photographs and held a lighter beneath it.
