I looked at Samuel.
He seemed unsurprised.
“How much did he owe?”
“Enough to make him useful.”
Victor explained that Marcus had borrowed heavily to invest in a luxury housing project. The project failed. He falsified financial records to attract new investors and used the money to repay earlier ones.
When the scheme began collapsing, he contacted Victor.
Victor offered to erase the debts in exchange for access to me.
Marcus introduced him as a trusted adviser.
He shared my schedules.
He copied documents.
He persuaded Rachel that the farm sale belonged to them.
“He told her you planned to leave everything to Clara,” Victor said. “Rachel’s greed did the rest.”
Clara stared at the phone.
“You set them against Evelyn.”
“I showed them an opportunity.”
“You used them.”
“I paid Marcus two hundred thousand dollars.”
The room fell silent.
Two hundred thousand.
While I paid his student loans, covered his legal bills, and worried about whether he could afford his apartment, Victor had been paying him to betray me.
