Chapter 5 - “MOM, MAKE HER DRINK.”
Eleanor knew about the camera.
That meant Julian probably did too.
The next morning I made a decision Dana hated and the detective liked even less.
I returned to the house.
Not alone.
Tess waited outside in her car.
My phone was connected to her on an open call.
The detective had told me not to manufacture a confrontation.
I told myself I wasn’t.
I needed clothes.
Chloe’s school laptop was still there.
So were several work files.
That was all true.
It just was not the whole truth.
I wanted to see what Eleanor would do if she believed I had come back.
I entered the breakfast room at 7:31.
Eleanor was already there.
Pearls.
Dusty-rose dress.
Silver teapot.
As if nothing had happened.
“Nora.”
“Eleanor.”
She poured tea.
I did not sit.
She placed the cup in front of my usual chair.
“You’ve embarrassed this family enough.”
I almost laughed.
“You put drugs in my tea.”
“I put something in your tea because you weren’t sleeping.”
“You had no right.”
“You were becoming dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“Yourself. Chloe.”
There was the word.
Chloe.
The same justification Julian had been using.
I looked toward the counter.
The white jar was beside the teapot.
“You knew exactly what you were doing.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“You are confused.”
“I’m not confused anymore.”
“You were barely functioning.”
“Because of you.”
Her mouth tightened.
“You always need someone else to blame.”
I heard a movement behind me.
Chloe.
I spun around.
She had come through the side entrance.
Tess rushed behind her.
“I’m sorry,” Tess said. “She saw your car and bolted.”
Eleanor immediately changed.
“Sweetheart.”
Chloe moved toward me instead.
Eleanor reached for the teacup.
“Drink it. Don’t argue.”
She grabbed my wrist.
Hard.
The violence shocked me because for ten years Eleanor’s cruelty had always been social.
A comment.
A correction.
A hand placed too firmly on my shoulder.
Never this.
I twisted away.
Tea spilled across the saucer.
Chloe cried out.
“Grandma, stop!”
Eleanor pulled my wrist back.
Chloe pressed against my side.
“Mommy, that’s the powder tea.”
I knocked the cup sideways.
It struck the table and spilled.
Eleanor reached for the jar.
I slapped her hand away and grabbed it first.
“You’ve been poisoning me.”
Footsteps came from the hallway.
Julian.
For one ridiculous second, part of me expected him to cross the room and protect me.
He walked to his mother.
Not me.
I pushed Chloe behind my body.
Julian stared at the jar.
“Nora, give that to me.”
“No.”
“This has gone far enough.”
I laughed.
“You knew.”
His eyes flicked toward Eleanor.
That was all the answer I needed.
Eleanor lunged for my wrist again.
I jerked away.
Julian caught her arm.
For one second I thought he was stopping her.
Then he looked at the untouched replacement cup she had poured.
“Mom,” he said, voice low and furious, “make her drink.”
Tess swore behind me.
I had known he was hiding something.
I had known he recognized the jar.
But hearing those words stripped away the last excuse I had been saving for him.
Misunderstanding.
Cowardice.
Blind loyalty.
There was nothing blind about this.
I backed toward the door with Chloe.
Tess already had her phone out.
Julian’s confidence disappeared when he saw it.
“Nora, wait.”
“No.”
“I can explain.”
“No.”
Eleanor said, “You’ll regret turning Chloe against her father.”
I stopped.
Not because she frightened me.
Because that sentence connected something in my mind.
The missed school pickup.
The parking-garage accident.
Julian asking my doctor whether I should stop driving.
Eleanor taking over Chloe’s schedule.
All the conversations about whether I was “safe” alone with my own daughter.
I looked at Julian.
“What have you been telling people about me?”
He did not answer.
May you like
I left carrying the white jar.
The question followed me all the way to Tess’s car.
