Chapter 13 - Eleanor’s Breakdown
Eleanor could not accept her new reality. The loss of her status, her wealth, and her country club friends completely fractured her mind.
One rainy Tuesday afternoon, exactly two months after the night I rescued Maya, the security cameras at the estate triggered an alert on my phone.
I opened the app and watched the live feed.
Eleanor was standing at the heavy iron gates of the estate, soaked in the rain, wearing a ratty fur coat that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months. She was screaming at the intercom, rattling the heavy iron bars with her bare hands.
"Let me in! This is my house! Julian bought this for me!" she wailed, her voice cracking with hysteria.
I didn't call the police immediately. I watched her for a moment, feeling a fleeting, microscopic pang of pity, which was quickly extinguished by the memory of her laughing while my daughter froze.
I pressed the intercom button on my phone.
"Eleanor," my voice boomed through the speakers at the gate.
She gasped, looking around wildly. "Richard! Let me in! Please! I have nowhere to go! Arthur left me! I’m begging you!"
"You stood on the porch and told my daughter she could come inside when she begged for forgiveness," I reminded her coldly. "I told you that you lost everything that night. I meant it."
"I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!" she sobbed, sinking to her knees in the mud.
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"Apology not accepted," I said.
I pressed the secondary button, dispatching the local police. Ten minutes later, Eleanor was arrested for violating the restraining order Maya had placed against the entire family. She was hauled away in the back of a cruiser, screaming into the void.
