Chapter 20 - VICTOR AND JACQUELINE HAD BEEN LYING FOR MORE THAN A YEAR
Gunther took the lie worse than Kayla did.
“Fourteen months?”
Victor stood in Gunther’s study.
Jacqueline beside him.
Kayla on the sofa.
“Yes.”
Gunther looked at Jacqueline.
“You said four.”
“I lied.”
“Clearly.”
Kayla said, “Why?”
Jacqueline glanced at Victor.
Victor answered.
“Because fourteen months means it started before Gunther went to prison.”
Silence.
Gunther understood.
“You were together while she was still seeing me.”
Jacqueline’s face hardened.
“No.”
“Timeline.”
“Our arrangement had ended.”
“Officially?”
“Yes.”
Gunther thought.
The watch.
The typed note.
The humiliating apology he later made.
Jacqueline and Victor began dating five months after that.
Before Gunther’s sentencing.
“So why hide it?”
Victor looked ashamed.
“Because I thought you’d see it as disloyal.”
Gunther stared.
“Disloyal to what?”
“You.”
“She wasn’t mine.”
“I know.”
“Did you?”
Victor looked away.
There.
Gunther’s anger changed.
This was not betrayal.
It was evidence of the culture he had created.
Men around him had learned to treat women in his orbit like protected territory.
Even after relationships ended.
Even when he claimed not to care.
Gunther looked at Jacqueline.
“I’m sorry.”
She blinked.
“For what?”
“That he thought loving you required permission from me.”
Victor looked wounded.
Jacqueline looked at him.
“That is exactly why I hid it.”
Kayla stayed quiet.
This was not her relationship.
Then she asked the important question.
“Why lie to me?”
Jacqueline’s expression softened.
“Because four months sounded like a new relationship.”
“And fourteen months?”
“Sounded serious.”
“It is serious.”
Victor looked at her.
Jacqueline met his eyes.
“Yes.”
There.
The first time either said it in front of anyone.
Gunther noticed.
Kayla did too.
Victor looked almost terrified.
Gunther nearly laughed.
“You have faced armed men with less fear.”
Victor glared.
“Shut up.”
Jacqueline smiled.
Then Kayla asked, “Are you in love?”
Victor answered immediately.
“Yes.”
Jacqueline looked at him.
Something moved across her face.
He had never said it publicly.
Maybe not privately either.
She reached for his hand.
“Yes.”
Good.
Relationship clarified.
No triangle.
No betrayal.
Just two adults hiding because old power structures still shaped their choices.
The blackmailer had exploited exactly that.
Marianne Vale eventually confessed.
She had worked Caleb’s legal defense.
Caleb had complained constantly that Gunther’s “maid” had destroyed the Woods family.
Marianne became obsessed with proving Kayla manipulated Gunther.
She partnered with Baines, who already had access through Elias.
They collected photographs.
Financial records.
Private schedules.
Their goal had not initially been extortion.
It had been a book deal.
The blackmail came later when Victor discovered irregularities.
Ugly.
Criminal.
Pathetic.
No master conspiracy.
Sometimes damage came from ordinary greed.
Marianne also admitted she had leaked Kayla and Elias photographs.
Filed the anonymous workplace complaint.
Sent the bedroom image.
The invasion was real.
But there was no hidden lover.
No secret Gunther manipulation.
No grand Woods plot.
Kayla felt relief.
Then exhaustion.
When the investigation ended, Victor invited Gunther and Kayla to dinner.
Jacqueline cooked.
Badly.
Gunther took one bite.
“This is terrible.”
Jacqueline stared.
“You spent seventeen months eating federal food.”
“And somehow this is worse.”
Victor laughed so hard he nearly choked.
Kayla watched the three of them.
For years, every connection around Gunther had been defined by hierarchy.
Boss.
Underboss.
Mistress.
Employee.
Now the labels were changing.
Victor was not subordinate.
Jacqueline was not former property.
Kayla was not maid.
Gunther was not unquestioned center.
It was messy.
Better.
After dinner, Jacqueline walked Kayla to the door.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Yes.”
“I did love him once.”
Kayla looked at her.
“Gunther?”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“He didn’t love me.”
“I know.”
Jacqueline smiled.
“And I’m glad.”
Kayla frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if he had tried, neither of us knew how to love properly then.”
She glanced toward Victor.
“I like who I am in this relationship.”
Kayla understood.
“Do you think Gunther loved me before he changed?”
Jacqueline considered.
“Yes.”
“That’s not the same as knowing how to treat you.”
“No.”
Kayla looked back toward the dining room.
Gunther was arguing with Victor about pasta.
For once, the most dangerous relationship question had an ordinary answer.
May you like
Love could be real before it was healthy.
The challenge was whether people were willing to make it healthier.
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