Chapter 9 - Victor’s Collapse
Victor’s health failed before finances did.
Minor heart attack at fifty-one.
Stress, smoking, high blood pressure.
Melissa did not visit.
I did.
People thought strange.
Why visit man who harmed me?
Because twenty years does not vanish.
I stood beside hospital bed.
He looked weak.
“You came.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Sophie asked.”
Lie partly.
I also wanted closure.
He whispered, “I’m scared.”
First honest vulnerability in years.
“Then stop fighting everything.”
“They’re taking my life.”
“No. You’re being asked to share what was never only yours.”
He cried.
Actual tears.
“I worked too.”
“I know.”
That mattered.
I had never said he did nothing.
Victor worked brutally hard.
His sin was turning joint sacrifice into solo mythology.
“I built it.”
“We built it.”
He closed eyes.
“We built it.”
First time.
Two words.
May you like
Maybe too late.
Still mattered.
