THE HEIR'S REVENGE

chapter 79

Patricia was right but I didn't think I was ready. Our stories blowing up could cause a controversy and a controversy is one that I didn't need now.

Especially because of Lily.

This would cause the story of her parents to be out in the open again.

“Sir?”

"Agreed," I said. "Set it up."

"I will have something arranged by this afternoon," Patricia said. "Leave Margaret Vane to us."

I ended the call and put the phone on the desk.

Henry was watching me with the expression he had when something had gone the right way but he was waiting to make sure I had fully processed it before he acknowledged it.

“Are you really okay with it?”

I looked at him, speechless for a while. I didn't really care about myself. Since I resumed here, there have always been rumours about me and the company so I wouldn't be surprised if once again, they decide to use this against me.

“I'm worried about Lily.” I told Henry.

He nodded. “I know. This story going online again might really affect her. She felt the blow the last time it happened.”

“She cried like never before when she found out about her parents.” Henry continued.

I could only imagine how Lily must have felt. Losing my mum was probably the worst thing that happened to me at that age. I remembered how happy she was this morning when she left with Yemi.

It brought smiles to my face, just thinking about how excited she has been this past few weeks. The first day I saw her, I wondered why such a little girl looked so gloomy and dull but I got it immediately, I knew her.

She was carrying so much by herself and I didn't want it to go back to being the same. How could I do this so it wouldn't affect Lily in any way.

“I'll talk to her about it. Let's continue.” I had to stop myself from thinking about it. “I'll talk to her about it.”

Henry nodded and said nothing more.

"She used a monitored phone?” I asked, changing the topic.

"Yes," Henry said.

"She knew the call was being recorded."

"Yes."

"So she knew we would know about Margaret," I said. "She knew we would find out."

Henry looked at me carefully.

"She wanted you to find out," he said quietly.

I looked at him.

"She wanted the document to be intercepted," Henry said. "Think about it. If the document reaches the journalist she gets the story she wants. If the document is intercepted by the prosecution and introduced as evidence she still gets the story she wants because now it will be read in court. In public. On the official record." He paused. "Either way the twelve pages get read. Either way her version of events is heard and that is what matters to her.”

I stared at him.

Victoria had not made a mistake. It was all intentional. It was more like a move that worked in her favour regardless of which direction it went.

I had been sitting here thinking I had caught her last play and she had designed it to be caught. I was here worried about how it could affect us while she already had the upper hand.

I stood up from the desk and walked to the window.

What exactly was I doing wrong? Why did it seem like no matter what I do I still couldn't get to Victoria.

No matter what I did.

I thought about twelve pages of careful elegant handwriting calling my mother's poisoning a temporary medical intervention that she didn't know would escalate.

I thought about Patricia saying give her the actual story. The full documented truth.

I turned around.

"Patricia is right," I said. "We give the journalist the real story. We give her the actual story before Victoria's document gets to her. We need to get ahead of it completely."

Henry nodded slowly.

"We have been careful for months," I said. "We have been building quietly and deliberately and not making noise. That was the right approach for the legal case." I looked at Henry directly. "But Victoria is trying to write a narrative and the only way to stop a narrative is to replace it with a better one." I paused. "The truth is a better story than anything Victoria wrote in those twelve pages. We just have to tell it properly."

"A full story," Henry said. "Sarah Blackwell's real history.”

"Yes," I said.

We've been playing it safe all this while, maybe it is time we take all the risk there is.

"That is a tough decision, you need to think about it properly. " Henry said carefully. "It means making things public that have been private. It means your story and your mother's story being known widely."

"I know," I said.

I thought about standing at my mother's grave in the cold morning. This was how I made it fully true.

"Set up the meeting with the journalist," I said. "Today if possible."

"I will call Patricia now," Henry said.

He stood up and picked up his phone and moved toward the door.

"Henry," I said.

He stopped.

"What do you think she will do when she finds out the document was intercepted?" I asked. "Victoria."

Henry thought about it for a moment.

I wanted to hear what he had to say about the whole situation, not just as a man who worked for me but as a friend of mine and Lily.

"I think she will sit very still in her chair," he said. "And she will understand that the last move she had available has been taken from her." He paused. “I also think that she must have prepared herself for the next step. Victoria is always ready.”

That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but Henry was right.

Victoria was always prepared and I should be too.

"Yes," I agreed.

"But she will know," Henry said. "She will know that it is finished."

He went out.

I stood at the window for another moment.