Chapter 10 - THE HIDDEN WALL
My Mission Bay condo had once belonged to Eleanor.
Not legally.
Not on any public deed.
But twenty-nine years earlier, she had designed the building with her father, an architect named Samuel Price.
The condo I later purchased had been the model unit.
Eleanor had hidden copies of her records inside a wall before Charles took her away.
Victoria had discovered a reference to them in an old letter but never learned the exact location.
That was why she wanted my condo.
The monthly payment was humiliation.
The property was evidence.
Police surrounded the building, but Victoria had entered before they arrived using a master key copied from Adrian.
Security footage showed her carrying a tool bag and wearing a maintenance uniform.
I knew my condo better than anyone.
I had renovated every room.
There was only one wall I had never opened: the narrow column between the kitchen and dining area.
It contained no plumbing, no wiring, and no structural beam.
Victoria would find it.
Rachel and I entered with officers behind us.
The condo was silent.
Then a drill started in the kitchen.
We moved down the hall.
Victoria stood beside a hole in the wall, dust covering her dark coat.
A small metal box lay on the floor.
She held a gun in one hand and an old cassette tape in the other.
“Put it down,” Rachel ordered.
Victoria pressed the gun against the cassette.
“One shot destroys the last original.”
“You already lost,” I said.
She looked at me with pure hatred.
“You think this was about stealing houses?”
“What was it about?”
“Survival.”
She told us she had been a nurse at St. Agnes when Charles met Eleanor.
Charles promised her money, status, and a life outside the hospital.
All she had to do was help convince the world Eleanor was unstable.
Afterward, Charles married Victoria.
But he never treated her as a partner.
He treated her as an employee who knew too much.
So Victoria built her own network.
She found vulnerable women.
She forged medical records.
She trained her sons to marry assets, not people.
“You raised Adrian to hunt women,” I said.
“I raised him to never be powerless.”
“You raised him to become a criminal.”
Her mouth tightened.
Then she aimed the gun at me.
“Give me the flash drive.”
“There are copies everywhere.”
“I don't care about the copies.”
Her eyes moved toward the metal box.
“I care about the tape.”
Rachel took one slow step.
Victoria pulled the trigger.
The shot struck the wall beside me.
Officers rushed forward.
Victoria grabbed the metal box and backed toward the balcony.
Then the balcony door opened behind her.
Charles stepped inside.
May you like
He had escaped the search perimeter.
And he was holding Maya's daughter Lily by the arm.
