Chapter 5 - The Fall of Victoria
The holding cell at the Cook County Central Detention Facility was a cold, windowless room made of stained cinder blocks and yellowing concrete.
Victoria Vance sat on the metal bench, her designer black dress ruined with sweat and dust from the transport van. Her high heels had been confiscated, leaving her in thin paper slippers. Her hair, which had been styled so meticulously when she attacked me two days ago, hung in greasy, tangled mats around her face.
The steel door clicked open.
I walked in, accompanied by a female guard who stood by the door with her arms crossed.
Victoria snapped her head up. When she saw me—standing tall in a dark blue wool trench coat, my platinum pixie cut perfectly styled, my skin glowing—a wave of pure, toxic venom erupted from her throat.
"You think you're clever, don't you?!" Victoria screamed, lunging forward until the chain of her ankle cuffs snapped tight, jerking her back onto the bench. "You bitter, old bitch! You ruined everything! Julian loves me! He never loved you! He told me every night how much he hated coming home to your pathetic, boring face!"
I didn't flinch. I walked to the wooden table in the center of the room and sat down gracefully, crossing one leg over the other.
"Is that why he tried to sacrifice you thirty minutes ago?" I asked softly.
Victoria froze, her chest heaving. "What?"
I pulled a small digital recorder from my coat pocket and set it on the table. I pressed play.
Julian’s voice echoed through the cold room, crisp and loud:
"Harrison, please! It was all Victoria! She seduced me! She manipulated the accounting software! She took the money and threatened to go to the press with fake harassment claims if I didn't sign the lease transfers! I was trying to protect the company from her!"
Victoria stared at the recorder, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "No... no, that’s a lie. He didn't say that."
"That was recorded fifteen minutes after you were arrested," I said calmly. "Julian offered the District Attorney full cooperation against you in exchange for immunity on the wire fraud charges."
"He lied!" Victoria shrieked, tears springing to her eyes, smearing her expensive mascara into dark, ugly tracks down her cheeks. "He was the one who gave me the account numbers! He told me we were going to buy a villa in Amalfi! He told me you were too stupid to ever notice!"
"I noticed three days after he made the first transfer, Victoria," I said, leaning forward. "I let him keep transferring money because every dollar he moved out of the company weakened his legal claim to the equity. You weren't his partner. You were my bait."
Victoria gasped, dropping her head into her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
"You shaved my head because you thought it would humiliate me," I whispered, my voice dropping into an icy register that made her look up through her wet fingers. "You thought hair was where my power came from. You thought if you ruined my appearance, I would hide in a corner and let you take my life."
I stood up, adjusting my coat.
"Hair grows back, Victoria," I said, stepping toward the door. "But a federal prison sentence for seventeen counts of grand larceny stays on your record forever. Have a wonderful afternoon."
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"Sarah, please!" Victoria screamed, scrambling off the bench onto her knees, reaching for the hem of my coat. "Don't leave me here! I'll testify against Julian! I'll tell them everything he did! Just talk to the DA! Please!"
I didn't turn back. I stepped out of the cell, and the steel door slammed shut between us with a heavy, final clang.
