Chapter 36 - Eleanor's Broken Throne
Before I left the detention complex, there was one more visit I had to make.
Eleanor Vance was being held in the women's wing, awaiting her formal bail revocation hearing. When the guards led her into the visitor booth, I barely recognized the woman who had ruled our family with an iron fist.
Her silver hair was unwashed, pulled back into a hasty knot. Her immaculate designer wardrobe had been replaced by an oversized orange jumpsuit. Her skin looked papery and drawn without her daily regimen of creams and cosmetics.
She sat down behind the plexiglass partition and lifted the receiver with trembling fingers. I picked up mine.
"Emma..." she rasped, her voice cracking. "Thank God you came. You have to get me out of here. The lawyer Campbell appointed is useless. He doesn't understand who I am! I cannot spend another night on this cot. My back... the food... it's barbaric!"
"You called Lily a burden," I said flatly.
Eleanor froze, the frantic entitlement on her face faltering for a split second. "Emma, that was a misunderstanding! I was under unbearable stress! Julian was threatening me, he was demanding the offshore codes—I was losing my mind! You must understand, everything I did, I did to preserve the family name!"
"Which name, Eleanor?" I asked coldly. "Vance? Or the syndicate name you took when you married Julian in 1978?"
Eleanor dropped the receiver. It swung wildly on its coiled metal cord, banging against the metal frame. Through the thick glass, I saw pure, unadulterated terror replace her arrogance.
She scrambled to pick it up, pressing it against her ear with both hands. "How... how do you know that?"
"Arthur left me the truth," I told her. "He knew you were pregnant when you married him. He knew Julian wasn't your brother. He knew every lie you ever told him, and he endured forty years of your cruelty just to make sure I had a safe home."
Tears began to leak down Eleanor’s sunken cheeks, carving trails through the grime on her face. "Emma... Julian made me do it. In the beginning, he promised we would be rich. But once we were trapped, he threatened to destroy me if I didn't marry Arthur. I was terrified!"
"You weren't terrified when you looked at my daughter on Christmas Day and told her she wasn't wanted," I said, my voice shaking with decades of repressed grief. "You weren't terrified when you tried to cut me out of the estate. You were arrogant. You thought you were invincible."
"I am your mother!" Eleanor sobbed, slamming her palm against the glass. "You cannot abandon me here! I carried you! I gave you life!"
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"Arthur gave me a life," I replied, feeling the final shackle of her psychological grip shatter into dust. "You just gave me a nightmare. Enjoy your trial, Eleanor. Because after today, you no longer have a daughter."
I hung up the receiver, stood up, and walked toward the exit. Behind the glass, Eleanor fell to her knees, screaming my name, but the sound was completely muffled by the soundproof partition.
