Chapter 4: The Morning He Made the Call
I didn't sleep that night.
I lay in the hotel room my father had booked for me — a room Victoria had originally told the concierge to cancel — and I stared at the ceiling and listened to the city outside.
At seven in the morning, I heard my father's voice through the wall.
Low.
Steady.
On the phone.
I got dressed and went downstairs to the breakfast room.
Aunt Ruth was already there, sitting at a corner table with a pot of tea and her reading glasses on.
She looked up when I sat down.
"How are you?"
"I don't know yet," I said.
"That's honest." She poured me a cup without asking.
"Your father was on the phone with Thomas Hale at six-thirty.
Thomas was his father's solicitor, not Victoria's man.
He's very good."
"What happens now?"
"Thomas will look at the trust documents.
He'll determine whether what Victoria signed constitutes a breach of fiduciary duty or something more serious." She paused.
"It may be something more serious."
I wrapped my hands around the cup.
"She always made me feel like I was the problem in that house.
Like everything that went wrong was because I existed."
"I know," Aunt Ruth said.
"I watched it happen.
I should have said something many years ago.
I kept telling myself it wasn't my place."
"Why didn't you?"
She was quiet for a moment.
"Because Daniel seemed happy.
Or I told myself he did.
And I didn't want to be the one who took that from him." She looked at me directly.
"I was wrong to protect his comfort over your wellbeing.
I am sorry, Eleanor."
I hadn't expected that.
I looked down at my cup.
"She told him I was difficult," I said.
"That I resented her for no reason.
That I was jealous of Chloe.
He believed her."
"He wanted to believe her.
That's different.
It's still a failure, but it's a different one."
The breakfast room began to fill slowly with other guests.
At the far end of the room, I saw Chloe come in alone.
She didn't see us at first.
She looked tired.
She looked like she hadn't slept either.
Then she spotted us.
She stopped walking.
She stood in the middle of the room for a moment.
Then she came over.
I tensed.
"I'm not here to fight," she said.
She didn't sit down.
"I just want to know — are you going to try to have my mother arrested?"
"That isn't Eleanor's decision," Aunt Ruth said.
"It's your father's."
"He's not answering his phone."
"He's with a solicitor."
Chloe looked at me.
"Did you know about this?
Before last night?"
"No," I said.
"I didn't."
She studied my face.
Whatever she was looking for, I don't know if she found it.
"She told me you were trying to turn Dad against us," Chloe said.
"She's been telling me that for years.
She said you were jealous because Dad loved her more than he ever loved your mother."
The words landed the way she probably knew they would.
I kept my face still.
"He loved my mother very much," I said.
"She passed when I was seven.
I didn't need to be jealous of anyone.
I just needed to be allowed to grieve her."
Chloe looked at the table.
Her jaw moved but she said nothing.
"Sit down, Chloe," Aunt Ruth said.
Not unkindly.
Chloe sat.
"Your mother did something wrong," Aunt Ruth said.
"Whatever happens next, that part is not negotiable.
What you choose to do with what you now know — that is the decision that will define you."
Chloe looked at her hands.
"She said she did it for us.
For our security."
"She signed away a sick woman's care fund," Aunt Ruth said.
"Think carefully about what that means."
Chloe didn't answer.
My phone buzzed on the table.
A message from my father.
*Come to room 14.
Bring Ruth.*
I showed Aunt Ruth the screen.
She stood up without a word.
I stood up too.
Chloe looked up at us.
"What's happening?"
"We don't know yet," I said.
I didn't invite her.
May you like
But I didn't tell her to stay away either.
She followed us to the lift.
