Chapter 4 - VICTORIA HAYES
Victoria was still at the estate.
Nathan had not allowed her to leave.
She sat in the east drawing room at dawn wearing the same formal gown from the reception.
Her engagement ring remained on her hand.
That annoyed Nathan more than it should have.
He entered alone.
Victoria looked up.
“Have you finished believing every ghost story Grace tells?”
Nathan placed her silver lighter on the table.
She stopped.
“Where did you get that?”
“Henry Vale.”
Victoria’s expression tightened.
“I lost it.”
“At his house?”
“No.”
“Three days before he died?”
She stared.
Nathan sat.
“Grace says you visited him.”
Victoria said nothing.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Nathan appreciated clean admissions only when they came before they became useless.
“Why?”
“He asked to see me.”
“For?”
“To warn me.”
“About Grace?”
“About you.”
Nathan almost smiled.
Victoria leaned forward.
“He said marrying you would put me in the middle of an old Cole war.”
“And that frightened you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He said someone would use me to reach your chair.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Black Table?”
Victoria’s eyes shifted.
Nathan saw it.
“You know the phrase.”
“Everyone with old family connections has heard stories.”
“Stories don’t make you threaten a child.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“Grace came back to destroy my marriage.”
“There is no marriage.”
“Yet.”
Nathan looked at the engagement ring.
“Maybe never.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“That child appears out of nowhere and suddenly I’m the enemy?”
“You put your hands on her.”
“She threw herself between us.”
“You grabbed her shoulder.”
Victoria said nothing.
Nathan’s voice dropped.
“You told her dead people keep secrets.”
That broke something.
Fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Who were you talking about?”
Victoria looked toward the door.
Nathan waited.
“My brother.”
He frowned.
Victoria had one older brother.
Aaron Hayes.
Dead five years.
Supposedly killed during a robbery outside Chicago.
“What does Aaron have to do with Grace?”
“He knew Thomas Miller.”
Nathan leaned back.
“Continue.”
“Aaron worked around the Cole family without Richard knowing.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“What did Aaron do?”
“Carried messages.”
“For Black Table?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Nathan had his answer.
“Aaron was one of them.”
“No.”
“Then?”
“He wanted in.”
“Why?”
“Power.”
Honest.
Dark.
Victoria continued.
“Aaron believed the Black Table could make him indispensable to both families.”
“What happened?”
“He learned too much.”
“And died.”
“Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Grace’s father?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
Victoria looked at Nathan.
“Maybe.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
Victoria continued.
“Aaron told me Julian was alive before he died.”
“You’ve known five years.”
“Yes.”
Nathan stood.
His calm became dangerous.
“You were going to marry me knowing my brother lived.”
“I was trying to survive what he started.”
“By saying nothing.”
“By keeping you from reopening it.”
Nathan laughed softly.
Victoria flinched.
“Everyone says that.”
“What?”
“That silence was protection.”
He walked closer.
“Your brother. Grace. Marcus. Henry. You.”
Victoria rose.
“You think truth automatically makes people safer?”
“No.”
Nathan looked down at her.
“But it lets them choose.”
Victoria looked away.
Nathan continued.
“Why did you recognize Julian’s ring?”
“Aaron showed me a drawing.”
“Why?”
“He said if I ever saw it outside the Cole crypt, Julian had returned.”
“Returned for what?”
Victoria whispered:
“To kill the man who replaced him.”
Nathan stared.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I did.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan looked toward the window.
“What did Henry tell you?”
Victoria’s breathing changed.
“He said Aaron was wrong.”
“About?”
“Julian.”
Nathan waited.
“He said Julian wasn’t coming for your chair.”
“What was he coming for?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Lily.”
Nathan’s entire face changed.
“He knew about her.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why Lily?”
“Henry said the child changes succession.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“I never named a successor.”
“The Black Table doesn’t need your permission.”
Silence.
Nathan’s father had built a world where blood was currency.
Nathan had no acknowledged children.
No heir.
No obvious future beyond himself.
Until Lily.
Victoria continued.
“If Lily is yours, every alliance changes.”
“Only if I care about inheritance.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“The Black Table isn’t choosing who inherits your money.”
Victoria’s voice fell.
“It chooses who inherits your enemies.”
Nathan stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means when one Cole boss dies, someone decides which grudges survive him.”
That was darker than succession.
Power could change hands.
Hatred could be curated.
Wars could be preserved.
Nathan thought of generations of supposedly inevitable conflicts.
Maybe none had been inevitable.
“Who sits at the Table?”
Victoria shook her head.
“Aaron never knew everyone.”
“Who did he know?”
“One name.”
Nathan waited.
“Marcus Reed.”
Dead.
Convenient.
“Anyone alive?”
Victoria hesitated.
Nathan saw it.
“Name.”
“My father.”
Richard Hayes.
The man Nathan was supposed to call family after the wedding.
Victoria immediately added:
“He told me he left years ago.”
Nathan almost smiled.
“You believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
There it was.
The true religion of powerful families.
Not loyalty.
Wanting.
Wanting the lie to be easier.
Nathan picked up the lighter.
“Why did you threaten Grace?”
Victoria’s face hardened again.
“Because she came into my reception with your child and Julian’s ring.”
“She didn’t know about the ring.”
“You believe her?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised both of them.
Victoria looked hurt.
Nathan felt nothing useful about that.
She whispered:
“You always loved her.”
Nathan did not answer.
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“That’s why she was dangerous three years ago.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“To who?”
Victoria realized too late.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Finish that sentence.”
Victoria said nothing.
“To who was Grace dangerous?”
May you like
Victoria’s composure finally broke.
“My father.”
