Chapter 56: CONFESSION

Victoria

I sat in a plastic chair and stared at the pale green walls. My hands shook on my lap no matter how many times I pressed them together.

Tehila walked past me toward the vending machines. She moved slowly with one hand pressed against her lower back. I had celebrated when Dalton asked for the divorce. I even opened a champagne with Sienna and toasted to new beginnings.

God help me. What had I done?

"Tehila." My voice cracked. "Please. I need to talk to you."

She turned slowly. Her face was pale but her eyes were filled with rage.

"I was wrong about you." The words were bitter on my tongue. "From the beginning. I was wrong."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No. Nothing I say will make anything better." I twisted my rings around my fingers. "But you deserve to know the truth about how this happened."

Tehila crossed her arms over her chest. "I already know how it happened. Dalton chose her."

"Because I pushed him toward her. She reached out to me to help her bag Dalton to forgive her. I believed  she was everything I Dalton needed. Beautiful and cultured. From the right family."

"Unlike me."

"Yes. Unlike you." There was no point lying now. "I never thought you were good enough for my son. Your family had no connections or real money. You worked in marketing for a mid-level firm, wore department store clothes and you did not know which fork to use at formal dinners."

Tehila's face hardened but she said nothing.

"I spent three years trying to mold you into someone acceptable. I corrected your posture and your speech and your wardrobe. I criticized everything you did because I thought if I pushed hard enough you would either become what I wanted or you would leave." I looked down at my hands. "I wanted you to leave."

"I know. You made that very clear."

"But you stayed. You kept trying to win my approval even when I made it impossible. You showed up to every family dinner, and smiled through my insults. You never fought back." I looked up at her. "That made me hate you more."

"Why?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Because you made me see myself. The way I had bent and twisted to fit into this family when I married Dalton's father. The way I had given up everything I was to become Mrs. Sterling." Tears dropped uncontrollably. I had not cried in years but now I could not stop. "I hated you for reminding me of what I used to be. Weak and desperate for approval."

Tehila sat down in the chair next to me, and remained quiet.

"When I met Sienna she seemed perfect. She came from old money. She knew how to navigate society. She had that polish I had spent decades trying to achieve." I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "I thought she would be better for Dalton and the family."

"So you helped her steal my husband."

"Yes.I gave her access to everything. I invited her to family dinners and introduced her to Dalton's friends. I made sure she was seated next to him at events. I told him you were holding him back from his full potential."

Tehila flinched.

"I convinced him that your pregnancy was a trap. That you got pregnant on purpose to secure your position in the family." My voice broke. "I planted seeds of doubt about whether the baby was even his. I told him you seemed too eager."

"The baby is his."

"I know that now. But I made him question it. I made him question everything about you." I stood and paced around the room. "When he started spending time with Sienna I encouraged it. I told him it was natural to want someone more sophisticated.”

"You destroyed my marriage."

"I helped destroy it. But Dalton made his own choices." I turned to face her. "I am not trying to shift blame. I am trying to explain how Sienna got back to Dalton."

Tehila was silently crying now too. "What else did you do?"

"I gave her keys to the mansion. All of them. Master keys that opened every room including Dalton's private study and the safe where he keeps important documents." The confession poured out of me. "I told the staff to treat her like family. To give her anything she asked for.”

"Did you know she was poisoning him?"

"No. God no. I would never..." I sat back down heavily. "But I ignored the signs.

"Cole tried to warn me. He said Sienna was pushing Dalton’s friends away. That something felt off about her. I told him he was being overprotective, and he needed to let Dalton live his own life." I twisted my rings harder. "Everyone who tried to protect my son I punished. And the woman who was killing him I welcomed with open arms."

"I am sorry Tehila. For everything I did to you."

"Sorry does not fix this."

"I know. But it is all I have." I walked toward the ICU. "I am going to sit with Dalton now. I need to be there when he wakes up. I need to tell him the truth about what I did."

"Victoria wait."

I turned back.

"No one deserves to be murdered."

"But I deserve to face the consequences of what I have done." I turned back toward the ICU. "Stay safe Tehila, and protect those babies. They are the only good thing to come out of this mess."

I had spent my whole life building walls around my family, and in the end I had let a serpent into our garden because she had the right pedigree.

The ICU doors were ahead. I could see Dalton through the window.

I reached for the ICU door handle.

A nurse burst out of the room so fast she almost knocked me over. Her face was white. Her hands shook as she grabbed the nearest phone.

"Code blue. Room 412. Code blue."

Doctors ran past me. Equipment crashed through the doorway. Alarms screamed from inside the room.

I stood frozen.

Another nurse rushed out shouting for someone to bring the crash cart. Her voice came out loud.

"Patient is in respiratory arrest. He has stopped breathing."