CHAPTER 11: THE SHOT IN THE FOREST
Victoria fell backward.
Alexander lunged toward Voss.
A second gunshot struck the ceiling as Marcus tackled him from the side.
The two men crashed through a wooden table.
Agents rushed into the house.
Voss fought with desperate strength, but within seconds he was disarmed and pinned to the floor.
Alexander dropped beside Victoria.
The bullet had struck her shoulder.
Blood spread across her clothing.
She stared at it in disbelief.
“Alexander?”
“I’m here.”
For one strange moment, she sounded like an old woman rather than the powerful Victoria Sterling.
“Don’t let me die.”
Despite everything, Alexander pressed his hand against the wound.
“An ambulance is coming.”
She gripped his sleeve.
“I did love you.”
Alexander’s expression did not change.
“You loved controlling me.”
“No.”
“You watched my daughter suffer.”
“I didn’t know it had become that bad.”
“You knew where they lived.”
Victoria began crying.
“I thought hardship would make Lauren leave the city.”
“And Sophia?”
“I believed Lauren would ask me for help.”
“So you could force her to surrender the trust.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Alexander finally understood.
Every act of cruelty had been disguised in her mind as strategy.
Every betrayal had been justified as protection.
She had convinced herself that the family fortune mattered more than the family itself.
Paramedics entered and lifted her onto a stretcher.
As they carried her away, she reached toward Alexander.
He did not take her hand.
Daniel Voss was led outside in handcuffs.
Before entering the police vehicle, he looked at Alexander.
“Your mother will blame everything on me.”
“She won’t succeed.”
“You still don’t understand her.”
Voss smiled.
“She always keeps one final weapon.”
Investigators searched the estate for hours.
No weapon appeared.
Then Marcus received an urgent call from the hospital.
Someone had leaked Lauren’s private medical history to the press.
Fake records were mixed with real ones.
The forged documents claimed Lauren had been treated for severe psychiatric disorders, violent delusions, and child endangerment.
News networks began repeating the allegations.
Online comments accused her of starving Sophia and manipulating Alexander for money.
Victoria’s final weapon was not a gun.
It was reputation.
Even from an ambulance under police guard, she had unleashed a story designed to destroy Lauren’s credibility.
Alexander watched the headlines multiply.
Then he called a press conference.
His advisers urged him to wait.
His attorneys warned him that speaking publicly could damage the criminal case.
Alexander ignored them.
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For three years, lies had survived because the truth remained hidden.
He would not hide it anymore.
