Chapter 14 - THE LAST VERSION OF THE LIE
Helena requested one final meeting with Elena.
Elena almost refused.
Then she agreed with attorneys present.
Helena arrived perfectly dressed.
Pearls.
Cream suit.
Hair immaculate.
She looked like a woman heading to a museum luncheon instead of facing the daughter-in-law she had helped terrorize.
“I loved you,” Helena began.
Elena nearly smiled.
“Did you?”
“I welcomed you.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Helena’s jaw tightened.
“You changed Victor.”
“No.”
“He was happy before.”
“Victor was easier for you before.”
Helena looked toward Maya.
“This is why conversations with her are impossible.”
Elena laughed.
There it was.
Document the reaction.
Discredit the person.
Even now.
Elena stopped laughing.
Helena tried again.
“I was protecting my son.”
“From what?”
“From losing his child because of one terrible marriage.”
“One terrible marriage he was creating.”
Helena’s face hardened.
“You threatened to leave.”
“Yes.”
“Repeatedly.”
“Yes.”
“You threw things.”
“Yes.”
“You screamed.”
“Yes.”
Helena looked almost triumphant.
Elena leaned forward.
“I reacted badly sometimes. That still doesn’t turn his violence into my responsibility.”
The triumph disappeared.
Then Helena made her final request.
“If Nora’s videos are used, the family will be destroyed.”
“No.”
Elena’s voice stayed calm.
“The videos show what the family already did.”
Helena looked at her.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing from you.”
That answer frightened Helena more than anger would have.
Elena continued.
“You do not contact me directly. You do not come to the hospital. You do not receive information about the baby unless I choose to provide it through the proper channels.”
Helena’s face broke.
“I’m her grandmother.”
“You are Victor’s mother.”
The distinction was deliberate.
“Whether you become a safe grandmother is a future question.”
Helena started crying.
Elena felt no triumph.
Just exhaustion.
When the meeting ended, Maya asked:
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Do you regret it?”
Elena thought about Helena holding a folder of carefully edited reactions while Victor controlled her.
“No.”
The exposure could not be stopped anymore.
Victor’s actions were documented.
Helena’s role was documented.
Nora’s complicity was documented.
Raul’s silence was documented.
Eleanor’s earlier failures had been admitted.
May you like
Nobody could place Elena alone in the center of the family problem again.
And there was no longer any edited version short enough to make her look like the cause.
