Chapter 6 - The Ghost of His Past
Ten minutes later, I sat in a private corner of the hotel lobby facing Victoria Sterling.
She was a woman in her early thirties, with sharp, intelligent eyes and a quiet, guarded demeanor. She wore a simple black trench coat, her knuckles white as she gripped a hot paper cup of coffee.
“I saw the video online,” Victoria said softly, her voice carrying a slight tremble. “I caught a flight from Chicago two hours ago the moment I recognized his face.”
I looked at her closely. “Did he do the same thing to you?”
Victoria let out a bitter, hollow laugh and pulled back the collar of her shirt slightly, revealing a faint, jagged scar running along her collarbone.
“Four years ago, we were three weeks away from our wedding,” Victoria said, her eyes glistening with old, buried pain. “Derek convinced me to sign over control of my family’s real estate holdings as part of our merger. When I started asking questions about missing funds, he threw me down a flight of stairs in his apartment.”
I felt a cold rage surge through my veins. “Why didn't you go to the police?”
“I did,” Victoria whispered. “But Patricia paid off my doctor to falsify the medical report, claiming I was intoxicated and fell. Derek threatened to ruin my father’s reputation in the papers if I didn't take a five-hundred-thousand-dollar settlement and sign a non-disclosure agreement.”
She set her coffee cup down and reached into her leather bag, pulling out a thick, yellowed paper folder.
“I kept everything,” Victoria said, sliding the folder across the marble table to me. “The original medical records from the private clinic before Patricia bribed them. The text messages where Derek admitted to pushing me. The wire transfers from his off-shore account.”
I opened the folder, my eyes scanning the horrific evidence of a pattern that stretched back nearly half a decade.
Derek wasn't just an abusive husband; he was a systematic predator who targeted grieving, wealthy heiresses, used emotional abuse to weaken them, stole their family assets, and used physical violence when they tried to break free.
“Victoria,” I said, looking into her eyes with deep, absolute sincerity. “The non-disclosure agreement he made you sign... it’s void if it was signed under coercion during the commission of a felony.”
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Victoria looked at me, a flicker of long-lost hope igniting in her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I have the best legal team in the state upstairs,” I said, taking her trembling hand in mine. “And tomorrow morning, we are going to make sure Derek Vance never puts his hands on another woman for the rest of his life.”
