Chapter 14 - VICTOR’S LAST REQUEST
Vanessa moved out forty-six days after the birthday party.
No photographers waited outside.
No guests watched.
A moving company carried boxes through the service entrance while Eleanor stayed at Marjorie’s apartment.
She returned the next morning.
The ballroom looked larger empty.
Victor came two days later by appointment to collect several boxes stored in Thomas’s library.
Eleanor allowed it because the contact arrangements had changed with counsel’s agreement and because Victor had complied with every boundary she set.
He looked around the room.
“It never felt this big when Dad was alive.”
Eleanor touched the back of a chair.
“He filled space.”
Victor smiled faintly.
Then he saw the compass on the desk.
“You kept the crack.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Probably fair.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“This isn’t about fair.”
“I know.”
He had completed the first phase of his intervention program and remained in individual therapy.
Hayes House had laid off fourteen employees rather than seventeen. Victor no longer used the mansion in any company materials.
None of those facts entitled him to closeness.
Before leaving, he placed a brass key on Thomas’s desk.
The old front-door key.
“I know the locks are changing.”
“They already did.”
Victor almost laughed.
“Right.”
He turned to go.
Then stopped.
“Can I ask one thing?”
Eleanor waited.
“Do you think Dad would have forgiven me?”
Eleanor felt anger rise.
Not because of the question.
Because Victor was still trying to outsource judgment to a dead man.
“I don’t know.”
Victor looked disappointed.
“I thought you might.”
“Your father is not here to decide what happens between us.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“Then do you?”
Eleanor looked at her son.
She could have said no.
She could have said someday.
Both would have been dishonest.
“I know I don’t want you living here.”
He absorbed it.
“Okay.”
“I know I’m not ready for birthdays.”
“Okay.”
“And I know apologies are not the same thing as safety.”
Victor’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
Eleanor picked up the old key.
May you like
“Start there.”
He left without asking for anything else.
