Chapter 12 - Eleanor’s Desperation
On Saturday afternoon, while I was sitting on my back patio enjoying the crisp autumn air and going through a stack of fresh legal briefings with Marcus, my personal cell phone buzzed. The caller ID displayed an unknown local number, but the voicemail that followed two minutes later was unmistakably Eleanor.
I put the phone on speaker and set it on the patio table between Marcus and me.
“Nora... Nora, please pick up the phone,” Eleanor’s voice crackled through the speaker. The haughty, arrogant tone she had worn like a crown for six years was completely gone, replaced by a ragged, trembling whine. “I’m calling from the payphone at a Motel 6 out by the interstate. It’s horrible here, Nora! The heat doesn't work, there are roaches in the bathroom, and the manager is demanding cash for tonight’s stay because my debit card was declined!”
She paused, taking a ragged, sobbing breath that sounded almost practiced in its desperation.
“Nora, you have to help me! This is all Julian’s fault! I told him not to serve you those papers while you were sick! I told him he was being cruel! He deceived me, Nora! He told me the house was his, he told me you were wasting his money! You know I’ve always thought of you as a daughter! Please, just let me come back to the house! I’ll stay in the basement! I’ll cook, I’ll clean, I won’t say a word! Julian is staying on a friend’s couch and he won’t even answer my calls! You can’t leave an old woman to starve in a filthy motel!”
Marcus chuckled darkly, taking a sip of his coffee. “Remarkable. Less than ninety-six hours ago, she told you that a woman who couldn't cook dinner had no purpose in life, and guaranteed you’d be sleeping in the gutter.”
“She always did have a flexible moral compass,” I remarked coldly.
I picked up the phone, saved the voicemail audio directly to my secure cloud folder for the divorce proceedings, and sent a single text message to the unknown number:
May you like
“Eleanor: Your son is legally responsible for your elder care under state domestic support statutes, not your ex-daughter-in-law. Any further attempts to contact me, approach my residence, or solicit money will result in a formal harassment complaint filed with the local police precinct. Good luck at the motel.”
I blocked the number permanently, set the phone face down, and turned my attention back to the divorce property division settlement.
