Chapter 5 - VICTORIA FINALLY ADMITTED WHY SHE TRIED TO HIT MARGARET
Victoria Sinclair disappeared from public view for nine days.
Her father had been arrested on financial and conspiracy-related charges pending further investigation.
Thomas Vane was in custody.
Leonard Hale was cooperating.
Todd Brennan faced his own charges for tampering with Margaret’s drink, though prosecutors acknowledged he might not have understood the true medical risk.
Victoria had not been charged with poisoning anyone.
That made Grace angry.
Then she reminded herself anger was not evidence.
She had learned that from Margaret.
Annoying woman.
Victoria did face a separate assault investigation for raising her hand to Margaret, although Grace had stopped the contact before it happened.
Threatening.
Attempt.
Public witnesses.
Maybe enough for consequences.
But the question everybody wanted answered was simpler.
Did Victoria know her father planned to drug Margaret?
Her lawyers said no.
Charles refused to discuss his daughter.
Vane said Charles never mentioned her involvement.
Leonard claimed Victoria attended meetings concerning the missing $22 million but was not present when anyone discussed delaying Margaret medically.
Then Detective Ruiz recovered a deleted voice message from Victoria’s phone.
Sent to Charles two hours before the gala.
Dad, Margaret knows enough to blow this apart tomorrow. Fix the money tonight. I don’t care how. Just don’t do anything insane.
Not exactly innocence.
Not exactly conspiracy to poison.
Grace heard the recording through the formal criminal case because she remained a witness.
Victoria knew trouble existed.
She knew her father operated outside ordinary rules.
She said not to do anything insane.
Then when Margaret confronted her publicly, Victoria tried to slap her.
People wanted simple villains.
Reality kept refusing.
Victoria asked to meet Margaret through attorneys.
Margaret said no.
Then Victoria asked to meet Grace.
Grace laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
Dominic was present when the request reached her.
They were inside a conference room at the DeLuca Foundation.
Grace had been there because Margaret asked her to join a safety review of gala staffing.
Not because Grace had suddenly become a security expert.
Because she understood how temporary workers moved through events better than executives did.
That surprised her.
Dominic’s foundation had offered Grace a temporary paid consulting role for the review.
Real contract.
Clear hourly rate.
No charity.
Grace accepted.
Her mother said:
“You grabbed one wrist and accidentally got a career.”
Grace replied:
“That is not how careers work.”
Celia:
“Apparently for rich people it is.”
Now Grace stared at Victoria’s meeting request.
“No.”
Dominic nodded.
Then Grace frowned.
“Why does she want me?”
Her attorney answered.
“Victoria claims she wants to apologize.”
“For threatening me?”
“Yes.”
“Or because she thinks I’ll make a good character witness?”
Nobody answered.
Exactly.
Grace declined.
Two weeks later, Victoria accepted a civil protective order relating to Margaret and Grace without admitting criminal intent.
Then prosecutors announced they would not charge her in the poisoning conspiracy absent additional evidence.
Public reaction was furious.
Grace was not.
Not anymore.
If Victoria did not plan the drugging, she should not go to prison for it.
The truth was bad enough.
She knew the foundation was hiding serious financial problems.
She pressured Leonard to keep the cancer-center project moving.
She lied publicly about her family’s donation.
She used her family’s power to intimidate staff.
She tried to hit an elderly woman.
And she threatened Grace afterward.
Consequences did not require invented crimes.
Months later, Victoria finally testified before a grand jury investigating her father and the foundation transactions.
Parts later became public.
Her account filled missing pieces.
Charles Sinclair’s philanthropy empire was collapsing.
He had invested restricted foundation reserves into private media ventures without proper approval.
When losses mounted, he moved money between donor accounts to hide gaps.
Leonard Hale helped disguise the transfers because Charles promised lucrative banking introductions and future board positions.
Victoria learned only portions at first.
Then more.
By the gala, she knew the $25 million cancer-center pledge was not funded.
She also knew her father had told Leonard:
Margaret needs to be unavailable tomorrow.
Victoria asked what that meant.
Charles said:
She’s old. People become unavailable for a hundred reasons.
Victoria claimed she believed he intended to pressure Margaret into postponing the meeting.
Maybe.
Then came the most important question.
Why had Victoria confronted Margaret near the wheelchair?
Victoria answered:
“Because Margaret told me my father was using me as a shield.”
The attorney asked:
“What did she mean?”
“She said he sent me to events to repeat claims he knew were false.”
“And?”
“She was right.”
Victoria cried then.
Not because of Grace.
Because admitting Margaret was right required admitting something about her father.
“I spent years thinking I was building my own influence.”
Victoria said.
“I was carrying his lies into rooms he could no longer enter without questions.”
Margaret’s public correction in front of the mayor’s wife shattered that illusion.
Victoria felt humiliated.
Cornered.
Afraid.
So she raised her hand.
Not because Margaret was powerless.
Because Margaret had made Victoria feel powerless.
Grace understood the psychology.
She did not forgive it.
Then the prosecutor asked:
“Did you see Grace Miller intervene?”
“Yes.”
“What did you think?”
“I wanted her fired.”
“Why?”
“Because she embarrassed me.”
“Anything else?”
Victoria paused.
“I envied her.”
That surprised everyone.
“What did you envy?”
“She didn’t know who Margaret was.”
“She didn’t know who Dominic was.”
“She thought she would lose her job.”
“And she still did what she thought was right.”
Victoria looked down.
“I had spent years telling myself I couldn’t stand up to my father because of what it would cost.”
“Then a waitress earning twenty dollars an hour stood up to me with more to lose proportionally than I did.”
Grace read that section twice.
It made her uncomfortable.
Not because it was false.
Because she did not want to become Victoria’s moral lesson.
Grace had not been brave every day.
She had ignored overdue notices.
Avoided her mother’s frightened questions.
Stayed in jobs where managers yelled because she needed hours.
One impulsive act did not make her saintly.
But it had mattered.
The trial against Charles Sinclair began seven months after the gala.
Financial crimes.
Conspiracy.
Evidence tampering.
Charges tied to Margaret’s poisoning plan.
Thomas Vane testified.
Leonard Hale testified under cooperation terms.
Todd Brennan testified.
Victoria testified against her father.
Dominic did not.
He was not needed.
Grace was.
She hated every second.
The defense attorney tried to make her look opportunistic.
“Ms. Miller, after this incident you received paid work from the DeLuca Foundation?”
“Yes.”
“You met privately with Dominic DeLuca?”
“Yes.”
“You became friendly with his mother?”
“Yes.”
“So your financial circumstances improved because of this case.”
Grace looked at the jury.
“My financial circumstances improved because I did paid work.”
The attorney smiled.
“Paid by Mr. DeLuca.”
“Paid under a contract reviewed by my attorney.”
“Did he pay your mother’s hospital bill?”
“No.”
The answer came sharp.
Because he hadn’t.
Dominic once asked if Grace needed help.
She said no.
Then Margaret told Grace about the hospital’s charity-care program and an oncology drug assistance foundation unrelated to DeLuca money.
Grace applied.
Her mother’s $18,764 bill was reduced drastically through legitimate financial assistance.
Grace paid the remaining portion on a payment plan.
Dominic respected that.
The defense attorney changed direction.
“You expect the jury to believe Mr. DeLuca received nothing from your loyalty?”
Grace stared.
“I’m not loyal to him.”
The courtroom went quiet.
Dominic was sitting in the back.
His eyebrow rose.
Grace continued.
“I told the truth.”
“If the truth helped him, fine.”
“If tomorrow the truth hurts him, I’ll tell that too.”
Margaret smiled from the witness gallery.
Dominic almost did.
Grace stepped down.
That evening, Dominic drove her home from court after asking first.
They sat inside the parked car outside her apartment.
He looked toward her.
“You’re not loyal to me?”
Grace smiled.
“Disappointed?”
“Devastated.”
It was the first time he openly joked with her.
She laughed.
Then the laughter faded.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
His expression changed.
“Is that suspicious?”
“With you?”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked through the windshield.
Then said:
“Because you helped my mother when there was nothing in it for you.”
“That’s gratitude.”
“Yes.”
“Not all of it.”
Grace’s heart changed rhythm.
Dangerous.
She opened the car door.
“Goodnight, Dominic.”
He did not stop her.
That mattered.
“Goodnight, Grace.”
She went upstairs.
Celia watched from the window.
“You like him.”
Grace nearly dropped her keys.
“He’s a mafia boss.”
“That wasn’t a no.”
“Go to bed, Mom.”
Celia smiled.
For the first time since treatment began, she looked less tired.
Grace went to her room.
May you like
And for the first time, the most frightening possibility in her life was not losing money.
It was that the man everyone in Chicago feared had begun making her feel safe.
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