Chapter 4: The Darkest Secret
Chapter 4: The Darkest Secret
Gabriel felt his entire world collapsing.
"You admitted it."
Victoria smiled bitterly.
"You still don't understand."
"What else is there to understand?"
Victoria's eyes shifted toward the nursery upstairs.
Toward Bella and Sophie.
Then she whispered:
"I was the reason they cried."
The room went silent.
Every servant.
Every guard.
Every nurse.
Frozen.
Gabriel stared at her.
"What did you say?"
Victoria laughed.
A chilling sound.
"Five months."
She shook her head.
"Five entire months."
"Every specialist failed."
"Every hospital failed."
"Every test failed."
"Because they were looking for diseases."
She leaned closer.
"When the real problem was standing right in front of them."
A terrible realization began forming inside Gabriel's mind.
"No..."
Victoria smiled.
"Oh yes."
She pointed at herself.
"I prescribed their medications."
The room erupted.
Mr. Henry's face turned pale.
Lucia felt sick.
Victoria continued.
"Small doses."
"Nothing deadly."
"Nothing obvious."
"Just enough to make them uncomfortable."
"Enough to keep them crying."
"Enough to ensure nobody could solve the mystery."
Gabriel looked ready to kill her.
"Why?"
Victoria's answer came instantly.
"Because suffering people need doctors."
The room fell silent again.
"Every time those babies cried, you called me."
"Every time another specialist failed, you trusted me more."
"Every day your dependence on me grew."
She smiled.
"I was becoming indispensable."
Lucia couldn't believe what she was hearing.
This wasn't jealousy anymore.
This was madness.
Pure madness.
"But then you arrived."
Victoria looked directly at Lucia.
"The babies stopped crying when you held them."
"You ruined everything."
Lucia remembered that first day.
The moment Bella had fallen asleep in her arms.
The impossible calm.
The sudden peace.
Victoria's eyes narrowed.
"I couldn't allow that."
"People were starting to ask questions."
"Gabriel was starting to notice you."
"So I decided to remove the problem."
Lucia felt chills run through her body.
The problem.
That was how Victoria saw her.
Not as a person.
As an obstacle.
Gabriel slowly stepped forward.
His voice was deadly calm.
"You tortured my daughters."
Victoria said nothing.
"You framed an innocent woman."
Silence.
"You nearly killed Bella."
Victoria lowered her eyes.
And for the first time, she seemed afraid.
Because she realized something.
Gabriel wasn't heartbroken anymore.
He wasn't confused.
He wasn't desperate.
He knew the truth.
And the truth had set him free.
The distant sound of police sirens suddenly echoed through the night.
Growing louder.
Closer.
Victoria's face turned white.
Mr. Henry had secretly called the authorities.
The game was over.
Within minutes, armed officers stormed the mansion.
Victoria was handcuffed.
As they led her away, she turned one last time toward Gabriel.
"I loved you."
Gabriel looked at her without emotion.
"No."
His voice was ice.
"You loved control."
The doors closed behind her.
And for the first time in months, the Whitmore mansion became silent.
Truly silent.
Upstairs, Bella and Sophie slept peacefully.
Safe.
Protected.
Finally free.
But as Lucia stood in the nursery holding one of the twins, she noticed something tucked beneath Bella's mattress.
A sealed envelope.
Yellowed with age.
Hidden carefully.
On the front were four handwritten words:
FOR GABRIEL ONLY
Lucia's heartbeat stopped.
Because whatever was inside that envelope...
May you like
Had been hidden there long before Victoria's arrest.
And it was about to reveal a secret even darker than the one they had just uncovered.
