Chapter 2
Eleanor stepped forward with a face full of false concern.
“Julian, thank God you’re home. She’s had a terrible episode. She broke the vase and started scrubbing the floor. I’ve been trying to calm her down.”
Lily shrank behind him.
Julian stood slowly, keeping his daughter protected at his back.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Eleanor’s voice sharpened.
“She lies. She acts out. She knows how to get sympathy.”
Then Martha appeared from the kitchen holding a container of coarse salt.
She stopped when she saw Julian.
The container slipped from her hand and spilled across the marble.
Julian looked at her.
“Leave this house.”
“Sir, I was only—”
“Now.”
Martha ran.
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“You’re overreacting. It’s her word against mine.”
Julian’s mouth curved into a small, cold smile.
“It’s not her word.”
He lifted his phone and pressed play.
Eleanor’s own voice filled the foyer.
“A mess. Just like your mother.”
Then Lily’s sob.
Then the sound of the vase breaking.
Eleanor stared at the ceiling.
“The cameras were off.”
“The ones you knew about were.”
Her face went gray.
Julian removed a folded document from his inner pocket.
“The prenuptial agreement,” he said. “The one you thought you altered. You forgot Clause 14.”
Eleanor’s eyes widened.
“Documented cruelty toward a minor. Criminal conduct. Gross moral misconduct. The agreement becomes void. You leave with nothing.”
Blue and red lights flashed against the glass doors.
Julian held Lily’s hand.
Eleanor did not go quietly.
People like her rarely do.
When the officers entered the foyer, she changed faces three times in less than a minute.
First, the victim.
“Julian is confused. He’s under stress. This is a misunderstanding.”
Then, the wife.
“Darling, please. Think of the family name.”
Then, when neither worked, the woman behind the mask finally appeared.
“You think she’ll love you now?” Eleanor snapped, pointing at Lily. “You’re never here. You buy gifts and cameras and call it parenting.”
Julian said nothing.
He was kneeling beside Lily again, opening the gift bag with hands that were still shaking.
Inside was a soft white rabbit.
Lily reached for it slowly, as if even comfort needed permission.
Julian placed it in her arms.
“You never have to earn being loved,” he whispered.
Eleanor laughed once, sharp and ugly.
“You’ll regret this.”
Julian looked up.
“I already do. But not for the reason you think.”
The officers escorted Eleanor toward the door.
Just before they took her outside, she turned back with eyes full of poison.
“I’m not the only one with secrets in this house, Julian.”
He stared at her.
She smiled.
May you like
“Ask her about the basement.”
Then she was gone.
