Chapter 9 - THE PAPERS VICTORIA SIGNED
Victoria remembered signing folders for Charles.
Hundreds over eleven years.
Charitable approvals.
House repairs.
Medical proxies.
Trust acknowledgments.
Charles often placed tabs.
“Here.”
“Here.”
“Here.”
She trusted him.
Now Richard laid six Red Harbor payment forms on the table.
Her signatures were genuine.
The page above each signature had been replaced.
Classic document substitution.
Victoria stared.
“Charles did this?”
Elias shook his head.
“Maybe not.”
Serena laughed.
“You’ll blame Lydia for putting paper under your hand?”
Victoria looked at her.
“You almost got me declared incompetent using altered records.”
“Not altered.”
Richard interrupted.
“Some were.”
Serena went still.
Forensics found metadata changes in two hospital summaries submitted with her petition.
Serena looked shocked.
“I didn’t change them.”
“Lydia prepared the packet,” Richard said.
The pattern tightened.
Lydia served Serena.
Accessed Victoria.
Moved money.
Met Robert.
Possessed Knox files.
But if Lydia was mastermind, why flee now?
Then police found her.
At a motel.
Alive.
Terrified.
She asked for immunity.
Serena wanted to confront her.
Richard refused.
Lydia’s statement arrived through counsel.
She admitted:
cloning Victoria’s phone,
creating the SMERCER_TEMP account,
altering medical documents,
using foundation cards,
and moving some money through Red Harbor.
Serena stared at the transcript.
“Why?”
Lydia said Robert Mercer recruited her.
He promised money and a board role after restructuring.
He told her Serena would become CEO after Victoria’s removal.
Serena looked sick.
“So I was bait.”
Yes.
Lydia’s job was to keep Serena angry enough to push the incompetency case.
While Robert’s network drained the company.
Then, once Charles died, succession chaos would trigger lender intervention.
The company would break apart.
Robert’s son’s fund would acquire the logistics assets cheaply.
Serena would get nothing like what she expected.
Victoria watched Serena read that.
For the first time, arrogance collapsed into humiliation.
“You thought you were using me.”
Lydia’s written statement answered:
Robert said you were easiest when praised.
Serena went completely still.
That sentence hurt more than accusation.
Because it named the thing.
Status.
Approval.
Her addiction.
Then Richard turned the page.
Lydia denied causing Victoria’s fall.
Denied touching Charles.
Denied knowing who killed the west wing lights.
Serena immediately looked at Victoria.
“Then maybe your fall really was an accident.”
Victoria said nothing.
Richard did.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
The electrical logs showed a manual breaker shutoff.
Someone inside Mercer House had cut lights intentionally.
Who had access?
Four people.
Victoria.
Serena.
Charles.
And the house manager.
House manager:
Thomas Reed.
Thirty years in Mercer service.
Serena’s godfather.
May you like
Victoria went cold.
Because Thomas was also the man who found her at the bottom of the stairs.
