Chapter 14 - WHAT MY MOTHER BELIEVED
I should have kept walking.
Instead, I agreed to hear her explanation in a monitored interview room.
My attorney sat beside me.
A camera recorded every word.
Helena entered wearing a jail uniform.
Without makeup or jewelry, she appeared smaller.
She sat across from me.
“You think I wanted your company.”
“You tried to take it.”
“I wanted to preserve it.”
“You attempted to kill me.”
Her jaw tightened.
“You were destroying everything your grandfather created.”
“I expanded his company into twenty-three countries.”
“You gave Clara voting shares.”
“She helped build it.”
“She was a waitress.”
“She worked nights so I could afford software licenses.”
Helena leaned forward.
“You married beneath yourself.”
“There it is.”
“You mistake sentiment for loyalty.”
“No.”
I kept my voice calm.
“You mistake obedience for love.”
She looked away.
For the first time, I saw something beneath her anger.
Fear.
“Your father nearly destroyed the family,” she said.
“My father has been dead for twelve years.”
“He borrowed against everything.”
I knew he had made reckless investments.
I did not know the full extent.
Helena revealed that my father left behind enormous secret debts.
She covered them by selling family assets and manipulating company accounts.
When I started succeeding, she became obsessed with restoring the Vale name.
Clara represented a threat because she knew me before the money.
She encouraged me to question family traditions.
She supported my decision to remove Conrad.
She convinced me to conduct independent audits.
Each choice reduced Helena’s control.
“You could have asked for help,” I said.
“A mother does not beg her son.”
“But she will murder him?”
“I believed Damian could protect the company.”
“Damian stole from it.”
“He listened to me.”
“That was his only qualification.”
Helena’s eyes filled with tears.
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me fear.”
“I made you strong.”
“Clara made me understand strength without cruelty.”
Her face hardened at Clara’s name.
“She turned you against me.”
“No.”
I stood.
“She taught me I was allowed to leave.”
Helena struck the table with her palm.
“You would choose her over your blood?”
“Every time.”
Her composure shattered.
“She will leave you.”
“Then I will survive without owning her.”
“You’ll regret this.”
“My only regret is that I did not protect her sooner.”
As I reached the door, Helena spoke again.
“Clara has not told you everything.”
I stopped.
“She signed one of the documents.”
My attorney looked at me.
May you like
Helena smiled.
“She signed away her shares two days before you returned.”
