Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT MY MOTHER DIED
Margaret Hale was under guard in a private hospital.
Arthur’s men had broken into her house.
She escaped through a basement window before they could reach her.
When I entered her room, she started crying.
“You look like Eleanor.”
She whispered.
I sat beside her.
“Tell me what happened to my mother.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“She had been gathering evidence for months.”
“Did Arthur know?”
“Eventually.”
“What happened the night she died?”
Margaret looked toward the door.
Reed nodded.
We were alone.
“Your mother called me at 9:14 p.m.”
Margaret said.
“She told me Arthur had discovered the copied records.”
“What records?”
“Ship inspections.”
My stomach tightened.
“The Meridian?”
“Yes.”
“She said she was leaving him that night.”
I could barely speak.
“But she never did.”
“No.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“At 11:40, Arthur called and said Eleanor had collapsed.”
“Was he alone with her?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Who else was there?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Vanessa.”
My sister had been seventeen.
“What did Vanessa see?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why mention her?”
“Because afterward, Vanessa changed.”
I remembered.
The panic attacks.
The locked bedroom door.
The sudden devotion to Arthur.
Margaret continued.
“Your father kept telling everyone Eleanor had taken medication incorrectly.”
“She didn’t.”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
“I believe there was an argument.”
“Believe?”
“I heard it.”
My hands went cold.
“Over the phone?”
“Yes.”
“Eleanor never disconnected.”
Margaret’s voice cracked.
“I heard Arthur yelling.”
“What did he say?”
“That she was destroying the family.”
I closed my eyes.
“And Mom?”
“She told him the family was already destroyed.”
Margaret wiped her face.
“Then I heard something fall.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She screamed.”
The room went silent.
I opened my eyes.
“Did you tell police?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Arthur’s attorney arrived before I could give a formal statement.”
“What attorney?”
Margaret looked at me.
“David Mercer.”
I knew the name.
Arthur’s chief legal counsel.
A man who had served the family for thirty years.
“What did Mercer do?”
“He showed me documents accusing me of stealing from the company.”
The same method Arthur later used on me.
“He said if I spoke, I would go to prison.”
“And you believed him.”
“I had two children.”
Her shame was visible.
I could not hate her.
Fear was the architecture of my father’s empire.
Then Margaret grabbed my wrist.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Your mother made a recording that night.”
My heartbeat stopped.
“Where is it?”
“She hid it before confronting him.”
“Where?”
Margaret looked toward the leather briefcase beside me.
“On the cassette you found.”
Reed and I exchanged a glance.
I had not listened to it yet.
Margaret’s fingers tightened around mine.
“Celeste, once you hear that recording, there is no going back.”
May you like
I stood.
“There was no going back the night he erased me.”
