Chapter 2 - Victoria didn’t call the kick protection
Emily came first.
Victoria took her out of the conservatory and into a private bridal suite on the other side of the estate. A physician attending the reception checked the girl’s cheek. It was red and sore but showed no sign of serious injury.
Emily kept asking the same question.
“Why did he do that?”
Victoria had no answer she could give an eight-year-old yet.
So she stayed with what was true.
“He was angry, and he did something he never had the right to do.”
Emily leaned against her.
“Are we going home with him?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
That seemed to calm her more than anything else.
Meanwhile, Marcus remained in another room with several relatives and the family attorney. He had not tried to approach Emily again.
Victoria’s brother, James, found her in the hallway afterward.
“You kicked him hard.”
“I know.”
“He hit Emily.”
“I know.”
James waited.
Victoria looked down.
“She was already behind me when I kicked him.”
That distinction mattered.
Marcus had just assaulted a child.
Victoria’s rage was understandable.
But once Emily was protected behind her, the kick was retaliation—not the only available way to keep the girl safe.
Victoria refused to call it heroic later.
She gave the same account when police were contacted.
“Marcus slapped my daughter. I got Emily behind me. Then I kicked him because I was furious.”
No polishing.
No invented self-defense.
Marcus’s violence toward Emily remained the far more serious issue.
Victoria still intended to take responsibility for her own choice.
But the physical confrontation was not what consumed Marcus after the reception.
It was her wording.
Your daughter.
That evening, after Emily fell asleep at Victoria’s sister’s home, Marcus called seventeen times.
Victoria answered none of them.
Then a message arrived.
What did you mean?
Another.
Victoria, answer me.
Then:
Is Emily mine?
Victoria stared at that sentence for a long time.
She had spent six weeks preparing herself for a conversation she hoped never to have in anger.
Now the question was already out.
She typed only one response.
There is a DNA result we need to discuss through attorneys and a genetic counselor. Do not contact Emily.
Marcus called again immediately.
Victoria silenced the phone.
Because the truth was still not as simple as the words she had thrown at him on the conservatory floor.
She had evidence.
Strong evidence.
But she did not yet have the accredited paternity result that would turn suspicion into fact.
And before Marcus could demand answers, Victoria needed him to understand something else.
May you like
Even if Emily was biologically his daughter, biology did not erase what he had just done to her.
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