Chapter 14 - Eleanor’s Betrayal
They confronted Eleanor.
She denied it.
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Stop lying.”
Eleanor looked at him with hatred.
Victor continued.
“Charles gave you an envelope the night he died.”
Adrian stared at his mother.
“Is that true?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
Sophie felt anger rise.
“Where is it?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“I destroyed it.”
Adrian recoiled.
“What?”
“I burned it.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
Adrian slammed his hand onto the table.
“Stop saying that!”
Eleanor flinched.
“You destroyed evidence of murder.”
“I destroyed a list.”
“What list?”
Eleanor’s voice became almost inaudible.
“People Marcus had compromised.”
Victor’s face changed.
“You had the names?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Judges. Executives. Police officers. Board members.”
Sophie stared.
“People he paid?”
“Some.”
“Blackmailed?”
“Some.”
“And you burned it?”
Eleanor shook her head.
“I burned the original.”
Adrian went still.
“What does that mean?”
“I copied the names.”
“Where?”
Eleanor looked toward Sophie.
“Grace had them.”
Sophie closed her eyes.
Another secret.
Another layer.
“Where would my mother put them?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie walked away.
She was tired of everyone.
Adrian.
Eleanor.
Victor.
Grace.
People claiming secrets protected her while leaving her to live inside consequences she never understood.
She packed a bag.
Adrian found her near the staff entrance.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You’re not safe.”
“I’m not safe here either.”
“Sophie.”
She turned.
“I was slapped because of your family.”
Adrian said nothing.
“My apartment was destroyed.”
Silence.
“My mother lived in fear for twenty years.”
His expression tightened.
“And every time I ask a question, someone tells me another lie that was supposedly meant to protect someone.”
She picked up her bag.
“I need one night where nobody decides what I’m allowed to know.”
Adrian stepped aside.
He didn’t stop her.
That mattered.
Sophie went to a small hotel under another name.
At 2:13 a.m., someone knocked.
She froze.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Her mother used to knock that way.
Sophie approached the door.
“Who is it?”
A woman answered.
“Your mother told me to find you if Blackwood Manor ever made the news.”
Sophie opened the door with the chain still attached.
An elderly woman stood outside.
She held a faded photograph of Grace.
“My name is Ruth Delaney.”
Sophie stared.
“Who are you?”
“Your mother’s sister.”
Sophie’s breath caught.
“My mother didn’t have a sister.”
Ruth smiled sadly.
“She had to tell you that.”
Sophie opened the door.
Ruth carried a small metal case.
“Grace gave me this fourteen years ago.”
Sophie looked at it.
“What is it?”
“The list Eleanor copied.”
Sophie’s heart pounded.
Ruth set it on the bed.
Then she said:
“There’s one name on it that Adrian Blackwood cannot be allowed to see until you understand why.”
Sophie stared at her.
“Whose?”
Ruth opened the case.
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At the top of the first page:
ADRIAN BLACKWOOD.
