𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑊𝐼𝐹𝐸 𝐻𝐸 𝑇𝐻𝑅𝐸𝑊 𝐴𝑊𝐴𝑌

Chapter 13 The Person Amanda Called Next

VICTOR POV

Victor drove home from the estate with one hand on the wheel and his eyes on the road and his mind completely elsewhere.

He had watched Evelyn walk away from the gate with Benjamin beside her, the two of them easy with each other in a way that said years of history. They walked the same speed. They turned the same direction at the same time. They moved together without thinking about it.

He had done that with no one. Not even Amanda.

At his office, Vanessa met him at the elevator with a folder.

"Three messages from your attorney about the custody filing," she said. "One call from your mother. And this." She held up the folder. "Amanda called the office from a different number. She left a message."

"What did she say?"

"She said she wants to meet with you. She says she has information that will change your current legal situation significantly, and that if you do not meet her today, she will take it elsewhere."

Victor took the folder and walked into his office. He dropped it on the desk without opening it.

Amanda was running out of ground. The article about the marriage certificate had spread overnight. Three board members had already called asking for an explanation. Two of his largest clients had sent formal letters expressing concern about the stability of his company's leadership.

He had forty days left before Evelyn's contract expired. Forty days during which Amanda could still theoretically use the bigamy evidence as leverage, because the moment Evelyn was free, Amanda's hold on the situation collapsed completely.

She knew that.

He called her back.

She picked up on the first ring.

"Victor. I knew you would call."

"You said you have information. Talk."

"Not on the phone. Meet me at the Riverside Hotel. Café on the ground floor. One hour."

He almost said no. He almost told her to send it to his attorney. But if she was planning another leak, another press drop, another hammer through whatever was left of his professional standing, he needed to know what it was first.

"One hour," he said.

She was already at the café when he arrived. A corner table, coffee in front of her, sunglasses pushed up on her head even though they were indoors. She watched him cross the room with the cool confidence of someone who was about to play a card they had been saving.

He sat down without greeting her.

"What is the information?" he said.

"Hello to you too," she said.

"Amanda."

She wrapped both hands around her coffee cup. "Fine. I will be direct." She looked at him. "I spoke to my sister."

Victor went still.

"Sandra called me two days ago. She was crying. She is feeling guilty about the information she gave Evelyn, and she wants to walk some of it back." Amanda's voice was perfectly controlled. "The marriage certificate she gave Evelyn was real. But the financial documents she included had certain context removed. Without that context, they look like fraud. With the full context, they look like legitimate business arrangements."

"Amanda."

"Hear me out. If Sandra goes back to Evelyn and says she withheld certain information, the strength of Evelyn's legal case drops significantly. The financial fraud angle disappears. What is left is the bigamy, which is messy but manageable if we frame it correctly."

Victor leaned forward. "You want me to let you coach your sister into walking back the truth she told."

"I want us to survive this together. Both of us." Amanda's composure cracked slightly at the edges. "Victor, everything I did, I did for us. The manipulation of Samuel, yes, I regret that now. I see how it looks. But I was protecting our future."

"You poisoned a child against his mother," Victor said.

"I know." Her voice dropped. "I know that. But if we work together now..."

"No."

She blinked. "What?"

"No. I am not doing this with you." He pushed back from the table. "I should have said no to you many years ago. I did not, and people were hurt because of that. My children. My wife. My family."

Amanda's composure left completely. "You cannot just throw me away like I meant nothing."

"You threw Evelyn away like she meant nothing," he said. "And you had my ten-year-old son as your instrument."

She grabbed his arm as he stood. "If you walk out of here, I will take everything I have to the press. Every conversation we ever had. Every promise you made me. Every transfer you signed off on. I will burn you down completely."

Victor looked at her hand on his arm.

"I know you will," he said. "And I deserve most of it." He removed her hand gently. "But it does not change my answer."

He walked out of the café.

The morning sun hit him when he stepped onto the street. He stood on the pavement for a moment and let it.

His phone rang. His attorney.

"The Williams family countered our filing," the attorney said. "They are bringing the bigamy evidence to the hearing. They have also formally notified the court that the contract expires before the hearing date, which effectively ends our legal grounds."

"I know," Victor said.

"Sir, we need a strategy."

"Withdraw the filing."

A pause. "Excuse me?"

"Withdraw the custody motion. I am dropping it."

"Sir, if you drop this motion, you are giving the Williams family significant leverage in the divorce proceedings."

"I know that too." Victor started walking toward his car. "Do it anyway."

"This will look like a concession."

"It is a concession." He reached his car and stood with the door open. "My wife deserved concessions ten years ago and she never got them. She will get them now, even if they do not benefit me at all."

He got in the car and sat for a moment before starting it.

On the seat beside him, where Samuel had sat yesterday with his red eyes and his painful honesty, there was a small folded piece of paper. Victor picked it up and opened it.

Samuel had drawn it. A family, stick figures in blue crayon. A woman with long hair in the center. Two smaller figures on either side of her. A taller figure standing slightly apart from the group, at the edge of the page.

The tall figure had a caption written above it in Samuel's handwriting.

"Dad. Trying."

Victor folded the paper carefully and put it in his jacket pocket.

He started the car.

He drove toward the office, but at the first traffic light, his phone buzzed with a news alert.

He glanced at it and went cold.

"Amanda Chen seen boarding international flight at noon. Sources say she is leaving the country."