CHAPTER 21: SHE KNOWS

Victoria’s fingers traced idle patterns along Alex’s chest, their bodies still tangled in silk sheets, skin damp with the echo of hours spent indulging one another. Late afternoon light filtered through the curtains, casting everything in a slow, golden hush.

This had become their rhythm... stolen hours, seized opportunities, as if they were making up for time they never had.

She exhaled softly, her cheek resting against his shoulder. For the past three hours, the world had fallen away. No meetings. No marriage. No mask. Just this: the quiet intensity of his touch, the way he looked at her like she was the only woman who mattered.

"I love seeing you like this," Alex murmured, his fingers sifting through her hair. "The real you. Unguarded. Completely yourself."

Her lips curled faintly. "Careful. That almost sounded romantic."

He chuckled, then leaned in, brushing his mouth against hers before his voice dropped...low and rough near her ear.

"Now, I want to fuck Ms. Victoria, my boss, the one in heels who makes boardrooms sweat. The one who orders me around or at least tries to. Be prepared."

A flush bloomed beneath her skin, heat rising as she met his gaze with a wicked grin.

"Then you better keep up."

But just as their mouths were about to meet again...

BANG.

The front door slammed shut, slicing through the moment like a blade.

Victoria immediately felt her shoulders tense. James was home.

Their eyes met for one desperate second as Alex vanished through the concealed door like smoke, the way he’d done dozens of times before.

Victoria’s gaze held everything she couldn’t say...longing, regret, the promise that this wasn’t over.

She glanced at her reflection in the hallway mirror, quickly checking that her post-Alex glow wasn’t too obvious. She’d been breathless in Alex’s arms for hours. Now she had to pretend to be the dutiful political wife.

"Victoria?" James’s voice echoed through the foyer, already distracted by something on his phone.

"In the kitchen," she called back, forcing warmth into her tone.

James appeared in the doorway, still scrolling through messages, his expensive suit wrinkled from another fourteen-hour campaign day. He looked exhausted, older somehow, the stress of his Senate race carving deeper lines around his eyes.

"Long day?" Victoria asked, though she already knew the answer. James’s days were always long now.

"Henderson thinks we’re losing ground with independents," he muttered, finally looking up from his screen. "The environmental vote isn’t breaking our way."

Victoria poured him coffee from the pot she’d made for appearance’s sake. She’d switched to tea weeks ago, another small change James would never notice. "Maybe you need a different approach to environmental issues."

"Maybe." James accepted the cup without thanks, his attention already drifting back to campaign strategy. "How was your day?"

The question was automatic, requiring no real answer. Victoria could have said she’d conquered Mars or discovered time travel, and James would have nodded absently while checking his email.

"Productive," Victoria replied, thinking of Alex’s hands on her skin. "Board meeting went well."

James grunted acknowledgment, sipping his coffee while typing on his phone with his free hand. This was their marriage now... parallel lives intersecting only when political necessity demanded it.

Victoria watched her husband of twenty-two years and felt absolutely nothing. No anger, no disappointment, not even irritation. Just... numbness. When had she stopped caring that he didn’t care?

The contrast with Alex was devastating. He had listened to every word she spoke, responded to her thoughts, made her feel fascinating and desired. Now she stood in her own kitchen feeling invisible to the person who was supposed to know her best.

"I’ll be in the study," James announced, already moving toward the door. "Conference call with the Philadelphia team in ten minutes."

"Of course you will," Victoria whispered after he left.

She remained in the kitchen, staring at her untouched coffee and marveling at how quickly joy could drain away. James’s presence didn’t just ignore her happiness...it actively suffocated it, reminding her of all the years she’d felt overlooked and undervalued.

____

The next morning, James emerged from his study looking marginally more human after six hours of sleep. Victoria had already been up for two hours, handling international calls and reviewing quarterly projections... work that energized her instead of depleting her.

"You seem different lately," James observed over breakfast, actually looking at her for the first time in weeks. "More... I don’t know. Energetic?"

Victoria’s pulse quickened, but she kept her expression neutral. "I’ve been feeling more engaged with work recently."

"Good, good." James nodded approvingly. "The campaign could use some positive energy. Your mood affects everyone, you know."

Even her happiness was only valuable to him in terms of political utility. Victoria bit back the sharp response that rose to her lips.

"Actually," she said carefully, "I am excited about something. I’ve started a new mentorship program at the company."

James’s eyebrows lifted with mild interest, the most attention he’d paid her in months.

"I’m working with this brilliant young entrepreneur," Victoria continued, her voice warming despite herself. "He has fascinating insights about sustainable technology, ethical business practices, innovative market approaches. Really visionary stuff."

"Sustainable technology?" James perked up immediately. "That could be useful. The environmental vote is crucial this year."

Of course he’d immediately think about political applications. Victoria felt a familiar stab of disappointment. "It’s not about politics, James. This is about genuine innovation, about building something meaningful."

"Everything’s political in an election year," James replied dismissively. "Who is this entrepreneur? Anyone I should know?"

Victoria’s heart hammered, but she kept her voice steady. "Actually, it’s Alex. Sophia’s boyfriend."

James perked up at the name. "Alex? Wait... Sophia’s boyfriend? Which one was that?" He chuckled dryly, not looking up from his phone. "Didn’t she have some guy who got beaten up at Blackwood? Dean mentioned something at the time. Sounded like a minor scuffle... some scholarship kid she took a liking to, turned into a mess."

Victoria went still.

A sharp ringing filled her ears.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Beaten up. At Blackwood.

No.

No, no, no.

She looked up slowly, heart slamming against her ribs like a warning bell.

"James..." Her voice barely escaped her lips. "That was Alex."

James blinked, frowning at his screen. "What? No, can’t be. That was months ago, wasn’t it? Some scholarship kid..."

Scholarship kid. Like Alex was disposable. Like his pain was an inconvenience in James’s political calculus.

Victoria felt the kitchen suddenly become too small, too bright. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

Her daughter. Her spoiled daughter had orchestrated this. While Victoria was shopping for Sophia’s designer dresses and funding her social life, Sophia was destroying someone beautiful.

Someone who now touched Victoria like she mattered. Someone who’d survived her daughter’s cruelty and still had the capacity for tenderness.

The irony was sickening.

"Victoria? You look pale." James’s voice seemed to come from underwater.

Victoria stared at her husband... this man who’d heard about a boy being hospitalized and filed it under "minor campaign nuisance."

So this is who he was. After all these years..

She wanted to grab his phone and smash it against the granite countertop.

"How long has she been playing with people? It’s like I don’t know my daughter at all.

"It wasn’t serious," James said dismissively, already turning back to his phone. "Kids that age get into fights. Part of growing up."

Victoria’s vision blurred with rage.

Not serious?

A boy... her Alex... had been beaten, humiliated, broken by her family’s world, and For him it’s part of growing up?

Her phone was in her hands before she realized she’d moved. Her fingers hovered over Alex’s contact.

She needed to see him. Touch him. Make sure he was whole and safe and...

God, what had they done to him? What scars was he hiding? What nightmares had her family’s world carved into his beautiful mind?

The urge to drive to his apartment, to hold him, to tell him how sorry she was. For everything, for not knowing, for her family was overwhelming.

What kind of mother raises a monster?

But even as shame flooded through her, she knew the truth: Alex deserved better than all of them. And somehow, impossibly, he’d chosen her.

She didn’t deserve his forgiveness.

She was going to fight for it anyway.

Victoria pressed her palms against the counter, legs shaking. The kitchen felt like it was spinning, reality reshaping itself around this horrible revelation.

Her daughter... her baby girl... was capable of orchestrating cruelty.

Her husband... her partner of two decades... was capable of complete indifference to suffering.

And Alex... Alex had survived them both and still found room in his heart for love.

She turned around sharply.

But James was already gone... taking a call, muttering into his phone as he walked out the front door like nothing happened.

As if a child hadn’t been broken under their roof and swept under the rug.

She didn’t waste another second, grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

For the first time in twenty-two years, Victoria Blackwood was done being the perfect political wife.

Sophia was going to explain herself. Today.

She was going to hear the truth from Alex. Today.

And James... James could go fuck his campaign calls.

The morning air hit her face as she stepped outside, and Victoria realized she was shaking... not with fear, but with purpose.

She was going to make this right.

Even if it meant burning down everything she’d built to do it.

____

Author’s Note:

I’ve been waiting to write this Chapter since Chapter one.

Victoria’s perfect world just shattered—and now she has to choose: her family’s spotless reputation or the man who’s awakened something real in her.

The twist?

Alex doesn’t even know she knows. He’s probably texting her right now, thinking about her... unaware she just uncovered the darkest moment of his life.

So when Victoria shows up at his door.. should she tell him everything? Or should she let him speak first?

And what about Sophia?

Does she deserve a chance to explain? Or has she earned the full force of her mother’s wrath?

Victoria is about to go to war.

The only question is... for whom, and how far will she go?