Chapter 6 - VICTORIA HAD CHOSEN A SIDE BEFORE THE BALLROOM
Liam drove straight to the Hamptons house.
Avery came with him.
Victoria was in the conservatory.
Liam placed the affidavit on the table.
“You signed this.”
Victoria’s expression barely changed.
“Yes.”
“You told me you never knew.”
“I said I never knew for certain.”
“This says Richard could not have been my biological father.”
“I know what it says.”
“How?”
Victoria looked toward Avery.
“This is private.”
Avery almost stood.
Liam stopped her.
“No. She stays.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
Then she explained.
The timeline everyone had relied on for thirty-five years was incomplete.
Richard had undergone surgery shortly before Liam was conceived.
A complication had temporarily made conception extremely unlikely.
Not impossible.
But unlikely enough that one specialist privately told Richard he should not assume paternity.
Richard had hidden that medical information from Charles.
He feared his father would use it to force testing.
Victoria knew.
Julian knew.
Nobody else was supposed to.
“So why tell Graham now?” Liam asked.
“I didn’t.”
“Your affidavit is attached to his challenge.”
“I gave it to the trustees.”
“Why?”
Victoria looked at him.
“To protect what Richard built.”
Avery almost laughed.
“By challenging your own son?”
Victoria turned on her.
“By keeping a larger fortune out of Graham’s hands.”
The logic emerged slowly.
If Liam was legally treated as Julian’s elder son, Liam might gain rights in Julian’s branch.
But another trust provision could then pull certain Richard-branch assets away from Liam entirely.
Victoria believed accepting one loss could protect a larger pool of wealth for Leo under Richard’s estate plan.
“You decided which identity made Liam richest?” Avery asked.
Victoria ignored her.
Liam stared at his mother.
“You could have told me.”
“You would have refused to play it strategically.”
“Because it’s my life.”
“It is also billions of dollars of family property.”
There it was.
Victoria’s hierarchy.
Money first.
Identity second.
Consent somewhere far below both.
Avery looked toward the doorway where Leo’s bassinet had been rolled in by the nanny.
Their one-month-old son knew none of this.
Yet adults were already calculating which version of his grandfather gave him the most favorable balance sheet.
Avery walked over and lifted Leo carefully.
“No.”
Victoria frowned.
Avery held her baby against her chest.
“No one chooses who his father is based on which trust pays more.”
Liam looked at her.
May you like
Something shifted in his face.
For the first time since the case opened, he seemed to know what he wanted.
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