Chapter 4: The Secret Victoria Could Never Explain
The room fell silent.
Every detective stared at the monitor.
Victoria sat alone inside my private office, flipping through the documents inside my safe with surprising confidence.
She wasn't nervous.
She wasn't rushing.
She behaved like someone who believed she had every right to be there.
Commissioner Lim folded his arms.
"Can you zoom in?"
The technician enlarged the image.
Victoria carefully photographed each page with her phone.
The title on the first document became readable.
Life Insurance Policy
Policy Holder: Adrian Tan
Beneficiary: Victoria Tan
The room grew colder.
The detective beside Daniel frowned.
"She memorized exactly where the safe was."
I nodded slowly.
"I never told her the combination."
Daniel looked at me.
"Who knew it?"
"Only me."
Mrs. Chen, standing quietly near the back of the room, suddenly gasped.
"I know how."
Everyone turned toward her.
"One afternoon..." she said, wringing her hands. "Mr. Tan was changing the code after Lily accidentally saw him open the safe."
She lowered her head.
"Madam Victoria stood outside the study pretending to water the orchids."
"I thought she wasn't paying attention."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"She was watching."
The technician continued reviewing the footage.
Victoria placed every document back exactly as she had found it.
Then she reached into her handbag.
She removed...
A tiny black object.
The detective leaned closer.
"What is that?"
The image sharpened.
A miniature wireless camera.
No larger than a shirt button.
Victoria carefully attached it beneath the bookshelf facing my desk.
Then she smiled.
She had planted a hidden surveillance device inside my office.
Commissioner Lim's face became expressionless.
"So she wasn't only abusing Lily."
"She was spying."
Another detective entered the room carrying a sealed evidence bag.
"Sir."
"We've completed the initial search of the penthouse."
"What did you find?"
"The leather belt."
"The torn school uniform."
"The cleaning chemicals."
He paused.
"And..."
He placed a smartphone onto the table.
"It wasn't hidden very well."
Daniel looked at the phone.
"Victoria's?"
The detective nodded.
"She tried deleting everything."
The cybercrime technician smiled faintly.
"Deleting doesn't erase data."
He connected the phone to forensic software.
Within minutes...
Thousands of recovered files appeared.
Photos.
Videos.
Voice recordings.
Text messages.
One folder caught everyone's attention.
Its title was chilling.
Discipline
The technician clicked it open.
More than sixty videos.
Every single one filmed by Victoria herself.
The first video began.
Victoria pointed the camera directly at Lily.
"Tell everyone why you're being punished."
Lily stood trembling.
"I..."
"I forgot to iron your dress."
Victoria slapped her before she finished speaking.
"Wrong answer."
"Again."
The recording continued.
Lily finally whispered,
"I'm being punished because I'm useless."
Victoria smiled.
"Better."
She ended the recording.
No one in the investigation room spoke.
The second video was worse.
Lily was kneeling on uncooked rice in the kitchen.
Her hands were raised above her head.
A kitchen timer ticked loudly.
Victoria sat drinking tea.
Whenever Lily lowered her arms...
Victoria struck her with the belt.
The timestamp showed...
Two hours and fourteen minutes.
Mrs. Chen burst into tears.
"I heard her crying..."
Victoria told me Lily was practicing ballet stretches."
She covered her face.
"I believed her."
Commissioner Lim quietly closed the laptop.
"This woman documented her own crimes."
One detective shook his head.
"Why would anyone do that?"
Daniel answered without hesitation.
"Power."
"Some abusers collect trophies."
"They relive what they've done."
At that moment, another officer hurried into the room.
"Sir."
"We've identified several bank transfers."
Daniel looked up.
"What kind of transfers?"
"From Mr. Tan's personal accounts."
I frowned.
"I never authorized anything."
The officer handed me a report.
Over the past four months...
Victoria had transferred money in small amounts.
Always below the bank's automatic fraud threshold.
Twenty thousand dollars.
Thirty thousand.
Fifteen thousand.
Again and again.
The total made my stomach turn.
1.8 million Singapore dollars.
I looked up sharply.
"Where did it go?"
The officer answered quietly.
"An offshore account."
"In the Cayman Islands."
Before anyone could speak...
The cybercrime technician interrupted.
"There's another message."
"What message?"
He enlarged Victoria's recovered texts.
One conversation had been deleted repeatedly.
The software restored it.
The contact name simply read:
Marcus
The detective began reading aloud.
Victoria:
"Everything is almost ready."
Marcus:
"What about the girl?"
Victoria answered seconds later.
"She's terrified now."
"She won't dare tell Adrian anything."
My hands clenched.
The detective continued.
Marcus:
"And Adrian?"
Victoria replied:
"He trusts me completely."
"Once the insurance changes are finalized..."
"We'll disappear."
The room went silent.
Commissioner Lim slowly looked at me.
"Did you recently change your insurance policy?"
I nodded.
"Last month."
"My financial advisor suggested updating it after our marriage."
Daniel exhaled slowly.
"So she knew."
He looked back at the messages.
"And she wasn't planning to stay."
Then the final recovered message appeared.
It had been sent only three days before I returned from Singapore.
Victoria wrote:
"After his next overseas trip..."
"Everything will finally be ours."
No one spoke.
No one needed to.
The implication hung heavily in the room.
The detective quietly closed the laptop.
He turned to Commissioner Lim.
"Sir..."
"This investigation is no longer limited to child abuse."
Daniel nodded grimly.
"I agree."
He looked directly at me.
"Adrian..."
"I think your early return didn't just save Lily's life."
He paused.
"It may have saved yours as well."
At that exact moment, a uniformed officer rushed into the room, his face unusually tense.
"Commissioner..."
"We've located Marcus."
Daniel stood immediately.
"Where?"
The officer swallowed.
"He wasn't trying to run."
"He was already waiting..."
May you like
"...inside Victoria's lawyer's office."
To be continued...
