Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN ALLISON THOUGHT SHE KNEW
Allison cried over her mother for the first time since the funeral.
Not because Eleanor was dead.
She had already cried for that.
She cried because her mother had been frightened while alive and Allison had not known.
Patricia sat across from her.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“She was ashamed.”
“Of Vanessa?”
“Of herself.”
That answer hurt more.
Eleanor had built a life around appearing capable.
After Allison and Vanessa's father died, she managed insurance, property taxes, investments, college bills, and every family crisis with the same sentence:
We'll handle it.
Admitting that her own daughter had taken advantage of her meant admitting she had lost control inside her own family.
Patricia continued.
“She also knew what people would say.”
“What?”
“That Vanessa deserved more because she stayed.”
Allison looked away.
She had thought that too.
Not about theft.
But about inheritance.
Responsibility.
Fairness.
She had spent years feeling guilty that Vanessa carried more of the local burden.
Vanessa knew it.
Eleanor knew it.
Maybe that guilt had helped everyone avoid asking harder questions.
Daniel rested one hand lightly on Allison’s shoulder.
“We can stop.”
“No.”
Allison wiped her face.
“I've stopped enough.”
The sentence surprised her.
Her greatest flaw in the family had not been leaving Massachusetts.
It had been avoiding conflict whenever guilt made her uncomfortable.
When Vanessa complained that Allison was the favorite, Allison apologized.
When Eleanor asked Allison not to question the salon loans, Allison stayed quiet.
When Vanessa implied the house sale was suspicious, Allison defended herself privately but never demanded the full accounting.
Peace had always seemed cheaper.
It wasn't.
Patricia told them one more thing.
After the jeweler confirmed the pearls were imitation, Eleanor had asked to buy burgundy sealing wax.
“Why?”
“She said she wanted to know if anyone opened the keepsake box again.”
Daniel looked toward Allison.
The intact seal at the wedding.
Eleanor herself had sealed those fake pearls inside.
That meant Vanessa could not have opened the box after Eleanor discovered the substitution.
Yet Vanessa knew exactly what was supposed to be inside.
And she had panicked when Daniel tried to open it.
Allison finally understood why.
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Vanessa had not been afraid the pearls would be missing.
She had been afraid the fake ones would still be there.
