Chapter 12 - VICTORIA'S EMPIRE
The truth was uglier than Ava expected.
Victoria Whitmore had not merely benefited from the old operation.
She had expanded it.
Through charitable foundations, recruitment programs, and international business partnerships, she created a network that appeared to provide training and employment opportunities.
Some programs were legitimate.
Others were not.
Workers were recruited with promises of education and well-paid jobs.
Then placed into exploitative arrangements.
Their wages were withheld.
Their documents controlled.
Their complaints buried beneath contracts they barely understood.
Ava listened to Elena describe it.
Then thought of the Whitmore Foundation.
The smiling photographs.
The speeches about opportunity.
The young women who came to the estate hoping for careers in fashion.
And the six months Ava herself had worked without pay.
Her stomach turned.
"Was Bianca involved?"
Elena hesitated.
"I don't know."
Ava nodded.
She appreciated the distinction.
Bianca had stolen credit.
Humiliated her.
Possibly planted a necklace.
But that didn't automatically mean she knew about a criminal network.
Truth mattered.
Even when it was inconvenient.
***
Niko contacted federal investigators.
This time, he didn't try to handle everything privately.
Elena insisted.
"The evidence needs to belong to the people harmed," she said.
Niko nodded.
"I know."
She looked at him.
"Do you?"
He met her eyes.
"I'm learning."
Ava almost smiled.
The Moretti family was apparently full of people learning very late.
***
Back in Chicago, Rachel prepared the civil case against the Whitmore Foundation.
Detective Keene continued investigating the gala.
Federal authorities reviewed the cabinet records.
Ava tried to focus on her designs.
But sleep became difficult.
She kept remembering the young women she'd met through the foundation.
Girls who smiled nervously while Bianca spoke about opportunity.
Girls who thanked Victoria for internships.
Girls who disappeared from the program without explanation.
Ava had assumed they found other jobs.
Now she wondered.
She called Rachel.
"Can we find them?"
Rachel hesitated.
"Some."
"Will you?"
"We can refer the information to investigators."
Ava swallowed.
"Please."
***
Bianca appeared at the Aurelia three days later.
No cameras.
No photographers.
No designer entourage.
Just Bianca.
Her makeup was smeared.
Her eyes were red.
Ava met her in a small conference room with Rachel present.
Bianca sat opposite her.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Bianca whispered:
"I didn't know."
Ava looked at her.
"About what?"
"The recruitment contracts."
Rachel leaned forward.
"Be specific."
Bianca swallowed.
"Mom used the foundation to recruit women for overseas placements. I thought they were internships."
Ava stared.
"Did you ever ask what happened to them?"
Bianca looked down.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want to know."
Silence.
That answer was more honest than Ava expected.
Bianca began crying.
Ava didn't comfort her.
"Did you plant the necklace?"
Bianca nodded.
"Yes."
"Did Victoria tell you to?"
"No."
Ava's chest tightened.
"Then why?"
Bianca wiped her face.
"Because I was jealous."
The words hung between them.
Bianca continued.
"Everyone kept talking about your designs. Even when my name was on the program, people asked who actually made them."
Ava stared.
"So you humiliated me."
"Yes."
"And accused me of theft."
"Yes."
"And tore my mother's dress."
Bianca began crying harder.
"I'm sorry."
Ava looked at her.
For sixteen years, she'd wanted Bianca to admit the truth.
Now the admission felt strangely small.
"You didn't just hurt me," Ava said.
Bianca looked up.
"You helped create a place where people believed they could take from someone with less power and call it opportunity."
Bianca's face crumpled.
Ava continued.
"I don't know whether you'll ever understand that."
Bianca whispered:
"I want to."
Ava looked at Rachel.
Then back at Bianca.
"Then tell investigators everything you know."
Bianca nodded.
"I will."
***
That night, Niko found Ava sitting beside the repaired emerald dress.
She had finished restoring the back seam.
The hem remained open where the key had been hidden.
"How was Bianca?" he asked.
"Honest."
"That's new."
Ava smiled faintly.
"Very."
He sat beside her.
"Did you forgive her?"
"No."
He nodded.
"Do you think you will?"
"I don't know."
She touched the dress.
"Maybe forgiveness isn't the first thing that matters."
"What is?"
"Whether she stops hurting people."
Niko looked at her.
Then smiled.
"Your mother would have liked that."
Ava leaned against him.
For a moment, she allowed herself to believe things might become simpler.
Then Matteo entered.
His face was grim.
"Boss."
Niko stood.
"What?"
"Victoria knows Elena is alive."
Ava went cold.
"How?"
Matteo hesitated.
"We're still tracing the leak."
Niko's expression hardened.
"Where's Elena?"
"Safe for now."
"Then what's the problem?"
Matteo looked at Ava.
"Victoria sent a message."
He handed Niko a phone.
On-screen was a photograph.
Ava's mother.
Eleanor Monroe.
Lying in a hospital bed years earlier.
Beside her stood Victoria.
Holding a folder.
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The caption read:
ASK AVA WHAT HER FATHER SIGNED THE NIGHT ELEANOR DIED.
