Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH VICTORIA WANTED HIDDEN
“Give me that photograph.”
Victoria's words came out sharper than she intended.
Daniel turned toward her.
“Why?”
“Because she has no right to bring strangers into our wedding reception.”
Eleanor remained seated.
“I haven't shown anyone the photograph yet.”
“Then don't.”
Daniel studied his fiancée.
“Victoria, who is Margaret Ellis?”
Victoria pressed her lips together.
“She worked for my family years ago.”
“As a housekeeper?”
“Yes.”
“And her daughter?”
Victoria stared toward the ballroom.
“Her daughter was a nurse.”
Daniel waited.
Victoria looked back at him.
“Are you satisfied?”
“No.”
Eleanor carefully opened a second envelope.
Inside was a photograph taken outside St. Catherine's Children's Hospital in Connecticut.
Victoria stood beside a young woman wearing blue medical scrubs.
Between them was a boy of perhaps seven.
He held a stuffed brown bear with one missing eye.
Daniel leaned closer.
He recognized Victoria immediately.
She was younger, wearing jeans and a simple gray sweater.
But what surprised him was her expression.
She was smiling.
Not the practiced smile she wore at charity galas.
A genuine one.
Her arm rested protectively around the boy.
“Who is he?”
Victoria looked away.
“His name is Ben.”
Daniel's voice softened.
“Whose child?”
“Margaret's grandson.”
Eleanor watched her carefully.
“His mother is Anna Ellis.”
Daniel nodded toward the photograph.
“You look close.”
“We were.”
“Were?”
Victoria drew a shaky breath.
“Anna and I grew up together.”
That admission surprised Eleanor.
She had been expecting denial.
Victoria continued.
“Margaret worked for my parents for nineteen years. Anna spent a lot of time at our house. We played together when we were children.”
“What happened?” Daniel asked.
Victoria's eyes hardened.
“My father fired Margaret.”
“Why?”
“Because money went missing.”
Eleanor glanced at the photograph.
“How much?”
“Seventy-five thousand dollars.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“It was serious.”
“Was she convicted?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know she stole it?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Because my father said so.”
Daniel stood very still.
Eleanor gently placed the photograph on the table.
“Margaret Ellis died last November.”
Victoria's head snapped toward her.
“What?”
“She suffered a stroke.”
Victoria stepped backward.
“No.”
“I'm sorry.”
For a moment, the beautiful ballroom disappeared from Victoria's awareness.
She remembered Margaret standing in the Hayes kitchen twenty years earlier, flour on her hands, laughing because Victoria had dropped an entire birthday cake.
She remembered Margaret teaching her to sew a button.
She remembered the woman staying up all night when Victoria's mother was hospitalized.
Then she remembered the afternoon Margaret had been dismissed.
Her father shouting.
Anna crying.
And Victoria standing near the staircase, saying nothing.
“She died?” Victoria whispered.
Eleanor nodded.
“Anna contacted me after the funeral.”
“Why would she contact you?”
“Because your family's accusation followed Margaret for years.”
Victoria wiped beneath one eye.
“My father told everyone she stole from us.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel looked at his fiancée.
“Did you know Margaret died?”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
It was the first answer Daniel believed without hesitation.
He touched her shoulder.
But she flinched.
“Don't.”
“Victoria—”
“Please.”
Eleanor watched the exchange.
She had expected anger, pride, perhaps even embarrassment.
She had not expected grief.
“Anna told me something else,” Eleanor said.
Victoria looked up reluctantly.
“What?”
“She said you were the only person in your family who visited Ben when he was hospitalized.”
Daniel turned.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Victoria laughed without humor.
“Because not everything good someone does belongs in a charity newsletter.”
The words surprised him.
She glanced at Eleanor.
“Is that what you wanted? Proof that I have a heart?”
Eleanor's expression softened.
“No. I wanted to understand why someone capable of showing such kindness could be so cruel to a stranger.”
Victoria had no answer.
Daniel picked up the photograph.
“What happened to Ben?”
“He had leukemia,” Victoria said.
Daniel looked stricken.
“Did he survive?”
“Yes.”
She swallowed.
“He's fourteen now.”
“And you haven't seen him?”
“Not for six years.”
“Why?”
Victoria's eyes filled again.
“Because Anna told me to stay away.”
Eleanor frowned.
“Anna never mentioned that.”
“She wouldn't.”
Victoria pulled out a chair.
For the first time all evening, she looked exhausted.
“When Ben was sick, his medical bills were overwhelming. Anna was working double shifts. Margaret was cleaning houses after my father fired her.”
Victoria stared at her hands.
“I tried to help.”
“How?” Daniel asked.
“I paid for some treatments.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“With your family money?”
“No. I sold my grandmother's emerald earrings.”
Eleanor lifted her head.
“The emerald earrings you told Daniel were stolen?”
Victoria nodded.
Daniel sat down slowly.
“You told me you lost them during a trip to Paris.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Of helping a sick child?”
“Of lying to my father.”
She swallowed.
“He had forbidden me to give Anna another dollar.”
“Why?” Eleanor asked.
Victoria's voice became small.
“Because he said her family was trying to take advantage of ours.”
Daniel looked toward the ballroom, where Victoria's father, Richard Hayes, was entertaining a group of bankers.
Richard was a powerful property developer.
He had financed much of the wedding reception.
And he had insisted that Daniel and Victoria sign a complicated prenuptial agreement.
Daniel had assumed he was simply protecting his daughter's interests.
Now he wasn't so sure.
“Does Richard know you helped Ben?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Victoria looked toward her father.
“He sent someone to the hospital.”
Eleanor leaned forward.
“Someone?”
“A man from his office.”
“What happened?”
Victoria rubbed her forehead.
“Anna was told that if I continued visiting, her mother's theft would become public again.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Your father threatened a family whose child had cancer?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I didn't hear the conversation.”
“But you believed Anna?”
“She called me crying. She told me Ben was frightened because a strange man had been asking questions about him.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“And then?”
“Then she asked me to stay away.”
Eleanor closed her eyes briefly.
The story was uglier than she had imagined.
But something still did not fit.
“Victoria,” she said, “why did Anna send me that photograph?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Because she believed you might help her again.”
“I can't.”
“Why not?”
“My father controls almost everything I own.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You never told me that.”
Victoria gave him a sad smile.
“There are many things you don't know about me.”
Before he could respond, Richard Hayes approached.
His silver hair was perfectly arranged.
His tailored tuxedo looked untouched by the evening's chaos.
“What's going on here?”
Victoria rose immediately.
“Dad.”
Richard glanced at Eleanor.
His expression became polite.
“Mrs. Whitmore. I didn't realize you'd arrived.”
Eleanor remained seated.
“Apparently, neither did your daughter.”
Richard chuckled.
“An unfortunate misunderstanding, I'm sure.”
Daniel held up the photograph.
“Do you remember Margaret Ellis?”
Richard's smile disappeared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Answer the question.”
Richard looked toward Victoria.
“Have you been discussing private family matters?”
Daniel stepped between them.
“I'm asking you.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“Margaret stole from our household. We were generous enough not to prosecute.”
Eleanor slowly opened Samuel's notebook.
“That's interesting.”
Richard frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Samuel investigated a missing seventy-five-thousand-dollar payment from one of his charitable programs nineteen years ago.”
Richard stopped moving.
Eleanor turned a page.
“The payment was supposed to support a children's medical initiative administered through Hayes Development.”
Victoria stared at her father.
“Dad?”
Richard's voice sharpened.
“This is not the place.”
Eleanor continued.
“Samuel wrote that the money vanished shortly before Margaret Ellis was accused of stealing the same amount.”
Daniel looked at Richard.
“Tell me that's a coincidence.”
Richard adjusted his cuffs.
“Old business records are complicated.”
Eleanor removed a small yellowed receipt.
“Then perhaps you can explain this.”
Richard looked at the paper.
His face changed.
Victoria leaned closer.
On the receipt was her father's signature.
And beneath it, in neat blue ink, were four words:
Received from Margaret Ellis.
Daniel read the date.
May you like
Then he looked up.
“Dad,” Victoria whispered, “why would Margaret have given you seventy-five thousand dollars three days before you accused her of stealing it?”
