Chapter 3 - What Lily Had Been Hiding
Victoria moved to the guesthouse under security supervision.
For the first time in years, Lily and I sat alone at the kitchen table.
No Victoria.
No assistants.
No executives.
Just my daughter.
I pushed the blue folder away.
“How long?”
Lily stared at her hands.
“Dad…”
“How long has she treated you like this?”
“Since you started traveling more.”
That meant three years.
I felt sick.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Remember Switzerland?”
I did.
A merger conference.
Lily had called.
Victoria later told me Lily was upset because I had refused to buy her a car.
That conversation had never happened.
“You were calling about Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“She took my phone after.”
“Why?”
“She said I was trying to destroy your marriage.”
My hands tightened.
Lily continued.
“She told me you were exhausted.”
“That Sterling Meridian was under pressure.”
“That if I kept causing problems, you might lose everything.”
“So you stayed quiet to protect me.”
She nodded.
I wanted to punch a wall.
Instead I asked:
“What about your wrist?”
“Three nights ago.”
“What happened?”
“She found out Ruth contacted me.”
“She grabbed me when I tried to leave.”
“Anything else?”
Lily became silent.
I waited.
No pressure.
No orders.
Finally:
“She used to lock my bedroom from the outside.”
I stopped breathing.
“When?”
“When you traveled.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“She said I was unstable.”
“She told staff I had anxiety episodes.”
“She told me if I complained, she’d have me sent somewhere.”
I stood.
Then sat again because anger was making me stupid.
“Did she ever have you evaluated?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“Dr. Marcus Vale.”
I knew the name.
Company psychiatrist.
Consultant to Sterling Meridian.
And Victoria’s recommendation.
Lily pulled a folder from her backpack.
“I took these from her office.”
Medical reports.
My daughter described as emotionally volatile.
Manipulative.
Attention-seeking.
At risk of self-destructive behavior.
I looked at Lily.
“Is any of this true?”
“I cried after Mom died.”
“You were eleven.”
“I had panic attacks.”
“That isn’t insanity.”
“Victoria said it was.”
Then I found the signature.
Dr. Marcus Vale.
Not related to Claire.
Just an unfortunate surname.
The evaluation recommended delaying Lily’s control of major financial assets.
Convenient.
Very convenient.
My phone rang.
Ruth.
“I found something else.”
“What?”
“Victoria requested a competency review of Lily three months ago.”
“On whose authority?”
“She claimed to be acting as stepmother and family representative.”
“She has no legal authority.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Ruth exhaled.
“Because if Lily were declared financially incompetent before midnight, her voting interest would temporarily pass to the successor trustee.”
“Who?”
I already knew.
Ruth answered:
“Victoria.”
I looked at my daughter.
May you like
Victoria had not only been humiliating Lily.
She had been building a paper trail to steal her adulthood.
