CHAPTER 14: VICTORIA’S HIDDEN ROLE
CHAPTER 14: VICTORIA’S HIDDEN ROLE
The room fell into complete silence.
Every person inside the hidden archive was looking at Victoria Blackwell.
The woman who had claimed to love Elizabeth.
The woman who had kept her mother’s journal safe.
The woman who had helped uncover Richard Sterling’s crimes.
Now Dr. Marcus Vale’s accusation hung in the air like a poison.
Victoria Blackwell.
The person who supposedly helped destroy Elizabeth.
Clara stared at her.
For the first time since meeting her, Clara did not see a grieving friend of her mother.
She saw a mystery.
A person full of unanswered questions.
“Is it true?”
Victoria’s face changed.
She looked older suddenly.
More tired.
Like someone who had carried a secret for far too long.
“Clara…”
“No.”
Clara shook her head.
“I need the truth.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Then she whispered:
“Yes.”
The room reacted instantly.
Ethan stepped forward.
“You were involved?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Yes.”
Clara felt her heart sink.
Another betrayal.
Another person who had lied.
“How?”
Her voice was quiet.
“How could you?”
Victoria looked at the photograph of Elizabeth.
“Because I made the biggest mistake of my life.”
Clara waited.
Victoria sat down slowly.
“I did not create Project Second Chance.”
She looked at the files.
“I did not agree with what Richard and William were doing.”
“Then why were you there?”
Victoria took a deep breath.
“Because I thought I could control it.”
Clara frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“When Elizabeth discovered what William and Richard were building, she came to me.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“She trusted me.”
A painful pause.
“And she asked me to help her expose them.”
Clara looked confused.
“But Dr. Vale said you helped erase her.”
Victoria nodded.
“That part is true.”
Everyone froze.
Clara’s expression changed.
“You admit it?”
Victoria looked devastated.
“I helped make Elizabeth disappear.”
The words hit the room like an explosion.
Alexander stepped forward.
“What did you do?”
Victoria looked at him.
“I saved her life.”
Nobody moved.
Clara stared.
“What?”
Victoria continued.
“That night, Richard found Elizabeth’s evidence.”
She looked down.
“He planned to destroy everything.”
“Destroy everything how?”
Victoria’s voice became softer.
“He planned to make Elizabeth look unstable.”
Clara understood immediately.
A person with money and influence could destroy someone’s reputation before anyone believed them.
“He wanted people to think my mother was lying.”
“Yes.”
Victoria nodded.
“He wanted to take Clara away from her forever.”
Clara’s hands tightened.
“So what did you do?”
“I helped Elizabeth escape.”
The room went quiet.
“You said you helped make her disappear.”
Victoria nodded.
“Because that was the only way to keep her alive.”
Clara froze.
“Alive?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Yes.”
A silence followed.
“My mother is alive?”
The question came out as a whisper.
Victoria looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
That answer hurt more.
“You don’t know?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I helped Elizabeth leave that night. I arranged a way for her to disappear.”
“Then where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara looked at her in disbelief.
“How can you not know?”
“Because Elizabeth wanted it that way.”
Victoria looked toward the old recording device.
“She knew Richard would come after anyone connected to her.”
“She knew if I knew where she was, they could force me to reveal it.”
Clara remained silent.
For the first time, Victoria’s story made sense.
But one question remained.
“Then why did everyone think she died?”
Victoria looked away.
“Because Richard needed a death.”
“What?”
“He needed the world to believe Elizabeth was gone.”
“Why?”
“Because if people thought she was alive, they would search for her.”
Victoria looked at Clara.
“And they would find the evidence she was carrying.”
Clara felt a chill.
“The evidence that could destroy Project Second Chance.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at the documents.
“So Elizabeth survived.”
Victoria nodded.
“Possibly.”
Alexander suddenly spoke.
“But if Elizabeth survived, why didn’t she come back for Clara?”
The question hurt everyone.
Victoria looked at Clara.
“Because she believed coming back would put you in more danger.”
Clara looked away.
A part of her understood.
But another part still hurt.
Her entire childhood.
Her loneliness.
Her pain.
All because people made decisions without her.
“She should have told me.”
Victoria nodded.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised Clara.
“She should have.”
A tear fell from Victoria’s eye.
“But she was a mother trying to keep her daughter alive.”
Clara looked down.
She wanted to hate Victoria.
She wanted to hate everyone.
But the truth was becoming more complicated.
Not everyone who disappeared had abandoned her.
Some people had been fighting battles she never knew existed.
Then Ethan found something inside the archive.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned.
He held up another document.
“This changes everything.”
Clara walked toward him.
“What is it?”
Ethan pointed at the date.
“This file was created five years after Elizabeth disappeared.”
Clara frowned.
“Five years?”
“Yes.”
Alexander looked closer.
The document contained a medical record.
A patient name.
Clara read it.
Her eyes widened.
Elizabeth Reed.
She looked at Alexander.
“Reed?”
Alexander’s face changed.
“That’s impossible.”
Victoria stood quickly.
“Where did you find that?”
Ethan looked at her.
“You know this name?”
Victoria said nothing.
Clara noticed.
“What are you hiding?”
Victoria looked at the document.
Then at Clara.
Finally, she whispered:
“Elizabeth changed her identity.”
Clara’s heart raced.
“She was alive.”
Victoria nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Victoria looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
“But someone does.”
Everyone turned.
A new voice came from the doorway.
A voice nobody expected.
The police officers immediately reached for their weapons.
A man stood there.
Older.
Carrying a folder.
And Clara recognized him instantly.
Dr. Marcus Vale.
Alive.
He smiled slightly.
“You’re all looking for answers.”
Nobody moved.
“But you’re searching in the wrong place.”
Clara stared at him.
“You lied to me.”
Dr. Vale looked at her.
“Yes.”
“And you destroyed my life.”
His expression remained calm.
“Yes.”
The honesty shocked her.
“Then why are you here?”
Dr. Vale looked at the documents.
“Because Richard Sterling is not the biggest threat anymore.”
A cold silence filled the room.
Clara narrowed her eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
Dr. Vale stepped forward.
“Because the person who has been controlling Project Second Chance for the last sixteen years…”
He looked directly at Clara.
“…is someone your mother trusted more than anyone.”
Victoria froze.
Alexander looked confused.
Ethan stepped forward.
“Who?”
Dr. Vale slowly opened the folder.
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph taken recently.
Everyone stared.
Because the person standing beside the new director of Project Second Chance…
Was someone they thought was helping Clara.
Someone who had been beside her all night.
Someone who claimed to be searching for the truth.
Clara looked at the picture.
And her heart stopped.
The person in the photograph was:
Alexander Reed.
May you like
Her father.
Again.
