Chapter 3 - THE FIRST CONSEQUENCE BELONGED TO VICTORIA
By noon, Victoria was no longer trustee.
Not permanently.
Temporarily.
Rachel recommended that she voluntarily step aside from trust decisions related to Lakeview Terrace while investigators examined whether the previous night was connected to the sale.
Victoria hated the idea.
“I’m the victim.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m the one losing authority?”
“You’re avoiding any claim that you are using trust power to retaliate against Sophia.”
Victoria looked toward the hospital window.
“That feels like punishment.”
“It can feel unfair and still be prudent.”
The professional cotrustee assumed temporary responsibility for the sale review.
Sophia did not receive control.
That mattered.
Still, Victoria felt something being taken.
She had spent years carrying the trust because Elaine asked her to.
Now the very responsibility that made her a target required her to release it.
The personal consequences came next.
Marcus’s attorney called.
Marcus denied intending to seriously harm Victoria.
He claimed he had been given a substance by someone else and believed it would cause only short-term drowsiness.
Victoria ended the call.
She did not want to hear him describe degrees of acceptable betrayal.
Her own attorney advised her not to return to the penthouse alone.
Victoria stayed at the Langham for three nights.
That felt absurd.
She owned half the marital apartment through their joint property arrangement and was sleeping ten blocks away because her husband had tried to put something into her dinner.
Sophia kept messaging.
Victoria finally answered once.
**Did you know he put something in my soup?**
Sophia replied after six minutes.
**I knew there was supposed to be something that made you tired. I didn’t know exactly what.**
Victoria stared at the screen.
That was enough to destroy the last comforting possibility.
Her sister had known.
Not every detail.
But enough.
Victoria sent the message to Rachel.
Then blocked Sophia temporarily.
The Lakeview Terrace meeting proceeded without either sister directing it.
The professional trustee requested an independent valuation before any sale discussion continued.
That was exactly what Victoria should have requested months earlier.
The realization annoyed her.
Sophia had accused her of refusing to test her emotional assumptions.
Sophia had been right about that.
Wrong about nearly everything else.
At home, police preserved relevant materials from the dining room.
Investigators also requested access to Marcus’s phone through proper legal channels.
Victoria did not have the passcode.
That surprised Rachel.
“You share everything else.”
“We used to.”
Victoria thought about it.
Six months earlier, Marcus changed his phone code after saying clients were sending confidential material.
She never questioned it.
Trust inside marriage often looked like not asking.
Then Victoria found the first financial consequence.
Their joint investment account showed a $75,000 transfer to an LLC called West Alder Consulting.
Victoria did not recognize it.
The transfer occurred three months earlier.
She called their financial adviser.
“Who authorized this?”
“Marcus.”
“Alone?”
The adviser reviewed the account structure.
“For that account, either spouse could direct transfers below one hundred thousand.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
She had agreed to that years earlier for convenience.
“Where did it go?”
The adviser could not know without records from the receiving entity.
Rachel searched Illinois business registrations.
West Alder Consulting belonged to Sophia.
Victoria sat down.
Seventy-five thousand dollars from her marital account.
To her sister.
Neither had told her.
When?
May you like
Two days after Victoria rejected Sophia’s first request to sell Lakeview Terrace.
Victoria did not yet know whether the money was a loan, investment, payment, or something worse.
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