My mother had known about it.
I had not.
Victor discovered enough to become obsessed.
Months before the mountain trip, he found old family papers my mother had left among my belongings.
I had never understood them.
They contained the Ashford name, references to a beneficiary, and the number that changed the way Victor looked at me.
Fifty million.
He began asking casual questions about my mother.
Then about my childhood.
Then about whether I had ever heard the name Ashford.
I thought he was curious.
He was calculating.
Serena helped him.
I still don’t know exactly when they decided my life was worth less than the fortune they imagined would follow my death.
Investigators later established that they had discussed my estate repeatedly before the mountain trip.
Serena knew Victor believed a husband would control everything if his wife died without another adult heir standing in front of him.
They also knew I was pregnant.
That should have stopped them.
Instead, they apparently convinced themselves the baby would never survive what they planned for me.
The trip was supposed to look ordinary.
A remote mountain lodge.
A day outside.
Weather turning worse faster than expected.
Then an accident.
On the ridge, Victor began moving farther from the marked path.
I remember telling him we should turn back.
Serena was several steps behind us.
Victor told me we were almost there.
I asked, “Almost where?”
He never answered.
When the trail narrowed beside a steep snow-covered drop, his hand struck my shoulder.
Not hard enough to look dramatic from a distance.
Hard enough to take away my balance.
I fell onto a lower shelf of packed snow and rock.
The impact knocked the air from me.
Pain shot through my hip and abdomen.
When I tried to climb, the snow collapsed beneath my gloves.
Victor looked down.
For one desperate second, I expected him to reach for me.
He didn’t.
“Victor, help me.”
Serena moved closer to the edge.
I saw fear on her face.
Not fear for me.
Fear that I might survive.
Victor climbed down just far enough to take my phone from where it had fallen beside me.
He also removed the emergency locator I carried on my pack.
That was when I understood this was not an accident.
“By sunrise, they’ll call it an accident,” he said.
Serena looked at him.
“And the money?”
“Ours.”
Then they left.
Victor would later tell investigators that we had become separated during the storm.
That lie began unraveling almost immediately.
The lodge had records showing all three of us had left together.
