Chapter 6 - The Sister Who Finally Told the Truth
Vivian came to my condo Sunday night.
She was alone, wearing sweatpants and one of Mom’s old Vanderbilt sweatshirts. Without the makeup and diamonds, she looked younger than thirty-one.
She also looked terrified.
“You froze Blake’s loan.”
“The bank froze it because my signature was forged.”
She folded her arms. “Dad said you gave permission.”
“Did you believe him?”
Her eyes moved away.
“Did you sign those papers knowing I hadn’t?”
“It was supposed to be temporary.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“We were going to repay you after the venue became profitable.”
“You were going to steal my house, use it to build your business, and repay me with my own property?”
Her face tightened. “You always make everything sound ugly.”
“Fraud is ugly.”
She paced across my living room. “You don’t understand what it’s like being compared to you.”
I almost laughed.
“Compared to me? Mom and Dad spent my entire life telling me you were warmer, prettier, easier to love.”
“And every time something went wrong, they said, ‘Audrey will fix it.’” Vivian’s voice cracked. “Do you know what that does to a person? They never expected anything from me because they didn’t believe I could do anything.”
For the first time, I heard something honest beneath her anger.
Not innocence.
But damage.
“Did you steal from the company?”
She stopped pacing.
“Dad said he could move money around until the boutique succeeded.”
“That money paid seventy-three employees.”
“I didn’t know how much he was taking.”
“But when the company started failing?”
Her eyes filled.
“Mom told me not to ask questions.”
“And you watched me mortgage my condo.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
She sank onto the edge of the couch.
Then she said the sentence that changed everything.
“The boutique wasn’t Dad’s first cover-up.”
I remained still.
Vivian wiped her face. “When you were twenty-six, Dad used your trust shares as collateral for a project in Memphis. The project failed. He couldn’t replace them, so he forged the transfer and told everyone the trust had been dissolved.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“He didn’t steal my shares to protect you.”
“No.” Her voice dropped. “He stole them to save himself.”
Dad had spent years presenting Vivian as the family burden and me as the family solution.
But the system was never built around protecting her.
It was built around protecting him.
Vivian looked toward the door.
“Blake knows about the forged loan. He told Dad you’d never take us to court because you were too desperate to be loved.”
That hurt because it had once been true.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Blake said if the bank investigates, he’ll claim I forged everything alone.”
She had not come to protect me.
May you like
She had come because the people she helped betray me were preparing to sacrifice her next.
For once, Vivian understood exactly how it felt to be useful only until someone needed a scapegoat.
