Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Helped Victor
Victor’s statement spread online in less than an hour.
IF I WANTED HER DEAD, MASON REED WOULDN’T HAVE FOUND HER.
News sites turned it into a headline.
Commentators invented theories.
Mason had been tipped off.
Mason and Lena were having an affair.
Victor had staged the freezer incident to expose them.
Rachel’s public-relations training had done its job even after she stopped helping him.
Narrative was everything.
Lena watched exactly three minutes of coverage before Priya took the remote.
“You are not doing this.”
“I need to know what people are saying.”
“No. You need to know what your doctors are saying.”
“I’m a grown woman.”
“You are a grown woman with blood pressure I am currently responsible for.”
Lena gave her the remote.
“Dictator.”
“Alive dictator.”
Tessa arrived with worse news.
Victor’s defense team had filed notice that they intended to challenge the integrity of the warehouse timeline.
They argued Mason had known Lena was there.
“How?”
“That is what we need to find out.”
Mason sat across the room, furious.
“I did not know.”
“I believe you,” Lena said.
Tessa looked at him.
“The prosecution will need more than belief.”
Mason stood.
“I was at Reed’s temporary office because we were auditing freight records.”
“Documented?”
“Yes.”
“Who knew you were there?”
“My staff.”
“Victor?”
“Possibly. He knew we had leased the space.”
Tessa tapped the file.
“So he knew there was a chance you would notice something.”
Mason went still.
Lena understood first.
“He wanted him there.”
Tessa did not answer.
Mason paced once.
“Why?”
“To blame you if I died.”
“That works only if I’m connected to the scene.”
“Exactly.”
Lena felt sick.
Victor had not forgotten Mason.
He had included him.
The flickering freezer lights might have been deliberate.
Not to save Lena.
To make sure Mason found a body.
Mason stopped pacing.
“If I had arrived thirty minutes later…”
Lena refused to finish that sentence.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t make my survival part of his intelligence.”
The words were sharper than she intended.
Mason nodded.
“You’re right.”
They reviewed the night again.
Victor left.
Lights flickered.
Mason noticed.
Why had they flickered?
The freezer lights were motion activated inside, but from Mason’s building he had seen lights in the warehouse office and corridor.
Not the freezer.
Lena stared.
“Someone was still inside.”
Mason looked at her.
“What?”
“The corridor lights. If Victor drove away, who triggered them?”
Detective Cole was called.
She listened.
Then requested additional forensic review.
By evening, investigators found another detail on the doorbell camera.
Eight minutes after Victor’s car left, a dark SUV exited from behind the building.
The plate was unreadable.
But the vehicle belonged to a fleet.
Rachel Sloane’s company leased the same model.
Rachel was brought back for questioning.
This time, she cried.
Not delicately.
Not strategically.
She folded at the waist and covered her face.
“I was there.”
Lena felt nothing.
Not yet.
Rachel spoke through tears.
“Victor told me he needed a witness to a safety test. He said Mason had threatened him and he wanted proof of sabotage.”
“You were inside while I was in that freezer?”
“Yes.”
“You heard me?”
Rachel looked down.
“No.”
Lena stood.
“Look at me.”
Rachel did.
“Did you hear me?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
Mason swore softly.
Tessa put a hand on Lena’s arm.
Lena stepped away from it.
“What did he tell you?”
“That you were acting.”
The room went silent.
“He said the freezer was running a controlled test. He said you agreed to help create evidence against Mason.”
Lena laughed.
It came out broken.
“I was screaming about my babies.”
Rachel’s face collapsed.
“I know.”
“When did you know?”
“When I heard you ask him to open the door.”
“And you stayed?”
“I froze.”
“Interesting word.”
Rachel cried harder.
Lena did not care.
“I wanted to leave. Victor told me if I opened the door, I would be implicated in fraud, obstruction, everything. He said he had messages proving I helped plan it.”
“Did you?”
“I helped plan the story afterward.”
Lena stared at her.
“So you thought if I died, you would explain why.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“And when did you leave?”
“After Victor.”
“Why were the corridor lights flickering?”
“I was taking documents from the office.”
“Whose?”
“Victor’s.”
Rachel opened her bag slowly and placed a small external drive on the table.
“I copied his planning files.”
Cole leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because I finally understood I was next.”
Lena almost admired the selfishness.
Rachel had not saved her.
She had saved herself.
Still, the drive mattered.
On it were financial projections.
Insurance notes.
Copies of Lena’s trust documents.
Draft media statements.
A schedule of warehouse staffing.
And a file titled CONTINGENCIES.
Tessa asked Lena to leave before investigators opened it.
Lena refused.
The document contained three scenarios.
ACCIDENTAL EXPOSURE.
VEHICLE INCIDENT.
MEDICAL CRISIS.
Each included notes about public messaging, insurance processing, asset transfer, and reputational risks.
Lena’s hands went numb.
Her death had been a project plan.
Then Mason pointed to a line.
Discovery variable: Reed audit team within visual range.
Victor had known.
He had selected Mercer partly because Mason’s temporary office was nearby.
“If I found her dead,” Mason said, “I became a suspect.”
Cole nodded.
“And if you found her alive?”
Everyone looked at the page.
There was no answer.
Victor had planned for death.
Lena’s survival was the flaw.
Rachel whispered, “He didn’t think she could last.”
The room changed.
Lena stepped toward her.
“Say that again.”
Rachel looked terrified.
“He said the cold would make it quick.”
Lena’s breath came shallow.
Mason moved but stopped himself from touching her.
That mattered.
Lena closed her eyes.
The freezer.
The darkness.
Her hand waving to keep the lights alive.
The twins kicking.
Victor believed her body would surrender before anyone reached her.
He had built an entire future on that assumption.
Lena opened her eyes.
“Then he didn’t know me at all.”
Rachel wiped her face.
“No.”
Lena looked at Mason.
“You did.”
His expression broke slightly.
“Yes.”
The answer was too intimate for the room.
Tessa cleared her throat.
“We are going to take this one step at a time.”
Lena nodded.
For once, she agreed.
The evidence from Rachel’s drive did not guarantee a conviction. Defense lawyers would challenge authenticity, context, custody, and motive. Rachel herself was compromised.
But the pattern was no longer invisible.
The next day, prosecutors announced additional conspiracy and fraud charges.
Victor was held pending a new bail hearing.
Lena watched from the NICU.
Sophie was gaining weight.
Ella had begun crying loudly enough to annoy the nurses.
Lena loved the sound.
Mason stood beside her.
“Do you want me to go?”
“No.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
She looked at him.
“That’s a different question.”
“Yes.”
Lena considered it.
Then she took his hand.
“Stay.”
May you like
He did.
And for the first time in years, neither of them treated staying like losing.
