Chapter 7 - The Honeymoon PlanThe honeymoon was supposed to be in St. Lucia.
Victoria helped Grant.
Victoria warned Emma.
Victoria targeted me.
Victoria protected Leo.
Victoria discussed controlling Leo.
Every answer created two more questions.
I drove to Massachusetts General with Detective Kim.
Grant remained at the estate with officers while a warrant was being sought for electronic records and security equipment.
Victoria was taken separately for formal questioning.
Caroline stayed with Daniel and Leo.
Samuel Briggs waited in a private conference room near hospital security.
He looked twenty years older than I remembered.
Thin.
Gray beard.
Wrinkled shirt.
A man who had spent too much time looking over his shoulder.
When I entered, he stood.
“Mr. Sterling.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Sarah closed the door.
Briggs looked at her.
“She police?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He sat.
“I should’ve gone to the police months ago.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Grant?”
He gave me a sad look.
“You really didn’t know your brother.”
“No.”
Briggs folded his hands.
“Neither did I.”
He explained that Emma had approached him quietly after noticing irregular consulting payments.
She asked him to review six vendors.
Five were legitimate.
Harlow Strategic wasn’t.
“Who owned it?”
“On paper? A Delaware holding company.”
“In reality?”
“Grant.”
“And Victoria?”
“Not then.”
I leaned forward.
“Where does she fit?”
Briggs hesitated.
“Victoria came to me first.”
“What?”
“About two months before Emma contacted me.”
Sarah took notes.
“She knew something was wrong?”
“She knew Grant was moving money.”
“How?”
“She was dating him.”
I stared at him.
“Victoria and Grant were together?”
“For almost a year.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“Before me.”
“Yes.”
I laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because there was nothing else my body knew how to do.
Briggs continued.
“She found documents in his apartment. Transfers. Fake invoices. She didn’t understand all of it, but she knew enough.”
“So she warned you?”
“She asked me what would happen if someone inside a company was stealing.”
“And you told Emma.”
“No. I told Victoria to report it to you.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Grant found out.”
Sarah asked, “How?”
“Don’t know.”
Briggs rubbed his hands together.
“After that, Victoria changed completely. Told me I had misunderstood. Said Grant’s accounts were legitimate.”
“She covered for him.”
“Yes.”
“Then Emma found the same transactions.”
Briggs nodded.
“Emma was smart.”
I smiled despite myself.
“Yes.”
“She saw duplicate vendor codes. Asked me to verify them. I told her the truth.”
“And Grant?”
“He confronted me two days later.”
“What did he say?”
“That I had signed confidentiality agreements. That spreading false accusations could ruin my career.”
“And after Emma died?”
Briggs looked down.
“He gave me fifty thousand dollars.”
My jaw tightened.
“To disappear?”
“To sign a statement saying all the discrepancies were clerical errors.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His face crumpled.
“My daughter was in rehab. I had debt. I told myself Emma was gone and exposing Grant wouldn’t bring her back.”
Sarah asked, “Did you know anything about Emma’s death?”
“No.”
“Did Grant ever threaten her?”
“Not directly in front of me.”
I stared at him.
“You said Victoria warned Emma.”
Briggs nodded.
“A week before the birth, Victoria called me from a blocked number.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘Tell Emma not to trust Grant.’”
My throat tightened.
“Why anonymously?”
“She was scared.”
“Of him?”
“I think so.”
Sarah leaned forward.
“Did she say anything else?”
Briggs nodded.
“She said Grant had started talking about what happened if Julian lost his wife.”
I felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
“She didn’t explain.”
“Did she mention Leo?”
“No.”
I walked to the window.
Below us, Boston moved as if my life were not collapsing.
Cars.
Pedestrians.
Ambulances.
Ordinary people having ordinary days.
For months I had blamed Victoria for entering my grief too perfectly.
Now I wondered whether she had known exactly where the wound was because she had helped create it.
Or because she had once tried to prevent it.
Sarah stood.
“We need to speak to Victoria again.”
I turned.
“I’m coming.”
“You can’t be in the interview.”
“Then I’ll wait outside.”
Before we left, Briggs called my name.
“There’s one more thing.”
I stopped.
“The day Emma died, Grant called me.”
“What time?”
“About six in the morning.”
Emma had gone into labor shortly after midnight.
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether Emma had copied the financial files.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I thought she had.”
Briggs looked ashamed.
“Grant said, ‘Then I need to get ahead of this before Julian sees anything.’”
My hands curled into fists.
“What did you think he meant?”
“I thought lawyers. Auditors. Damage control.”
“And now?”
Briggs looked at me.
“Now I don’t know.”
At the police station, I waited forty minutes.
Then Sarah came out.
Her face told me something had shifted.
“What did she say?”
“Victoria admitted the relationship.”
“With Grant?”
“Yes.”
“She says he was controlling and financially abusive.”
I said nothing.
“She says she stayed because he threatened to ruin her career and expose private information.”
“Then why date me?”
“That’s complicated.”
“Try.”
Sarah lowered her voice.
“Victoria says Grant came up with the idea.”
Of course.
“He knew you’d be vulnerable after Emma died. He knew you wanted stability for Leo.”
My stomach turned.
“So he sent his girlfriend to me.”
“Ex-girlfriend, according to her.”
“To marry me.”
“Yes.”
“And she agreed.”
“At first.”
Those two words caught me.
“At first?”
“Victoria claims she did agree to manipulate you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Finally, something simple.”
“But she says she changed.”
I looked at Sarah.
“You believe that?”
“I believe people can tell the truth about one thing while lying about another.”
“What does she claim changed?”
“Leo.”
I froze.
“She says she didn’t expect to care about him.”
I stared at the floor.
Memories again.
Victoria lying on the nursery carpet making faces at Leo.
Victoria canceling a charity gala because he had an ear infection.
Victoria crying the first time he said something that sounded vaguely like “Vivi.”
Could those moments have been real?
“She says Grant wanted her married to you so he could access the emergency governance plan.”
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
“So the call today—”
“She says she was trying to negotiate a way to give Grant control of the company without letting him control Leo.”
My anger returned.
“What a saint.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“She lied to me for a year.”
“Yes.”
“She planned to steal from me.”
“Yes.”
“She was discussing guardianship.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are we pretending she deserves sympathy?”
“We’re not.”
Sarah’s voice sharpened.
“We’re trying to determine whether she was part of a financial conspiracy or something more serious.”
I forced myself to calm down.
“What about the note in Leo’s blanket?”
“Victoria denies knowing about it.”
“And Michael?”
“She claims she thought Michael was coming to make sure Teresa didn’t leave before the ceremony.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant wanted Leo present after the wedding for family photographs.”
I stared at her.
“That makes no sense.”
“I agree.”
“Where is Michael?”
“Missing.”
That was bad.
“How long?”
“His phone is off. Vehicle located three miles from your estate.”
Sarah’s phone buzzed.
She checked it.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“Officers searched Grant’s office at your estate.”
“And?”
“They found a locked cabinet.”
My heartbeat increased.
“What was inside?”
“Copies of your medical records.”
“Mine?”
“And Emma’s.”
I gripped the edge of a chair.
Sarah continued.
“There was also a prepaid phone.”
“Michael?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What else?”
She hesitated.
“A bottle of prescription sedatives.”
I stared at her.
“Whose prescription?”
“No label.”
For months after Emma died, I had struggled to sleep.
Grant brought me tea every night for the first two weeks.
He told me I needed rest.
My skin went cold.
“What medication?”
“Lab is identifying it.”
I barely heard her.
There were nights after Emma’s funeral I couldn’t remember going to bed.
Mornings I woke dizzy.
Meetings I forgot.
Grant used those months later to describe me as emotionally unstable.
Had my grief been real?
Absolutely.
Had someone been making it worse?
I whispered, “He was building the medical case from the beginning.”
Sarah didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
Then her phone rang.
She stepped aside.
I watched her expression change.
Once.
Twice.
Then she looked at me.
“They found Michael.”
“Where?”
“At a motel outside Worcester.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He wants a lawyer.”
I exhaled.
Then Sarah added:
“But before he stopped talking, he said one thing.”
“What?”
May you like
She looked straight at me.
“He said Grant never planned for you to finish your honeymoon.”
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