CHAPTER 5
Eleanor clung to the bars.
“Emily, she said you didn’t want me anymore.”
Emily looked back at her mother.
The words hit harder than any battlefield noise ever had.
“No,” Emily whispered. “No, Mom. Never.”
Vivian stepped forward.
“Eleanor gets emotional. You know how older people exaggerate.”
Emily turned on her.
“My mother taught English for forty years. She knows exactly what words mean.”
Vivian’s expression hardened.
“She was becoming a problem.”
“A problem?”
“She screamed at guests. She accused me of stealing. She ruined dinners.”
“She accused you because you were stealing.”
Vivian froze.
Emily reached into her uniform pocket and pulled out folded papers.
“Bank transfers. Jewelry appraisals. A new power of attorney filed while my mother was supposedly too confused to speak to me.”
Vivian’s face went pale beneath her makeup.
“You had no right to dig through family records.”
Emily stepped closer.
“I am family.”
Vivian glanced at the cage.
Eleanor lowered her head as if she expected punishment for telling the truth.
Emily saw it.
May you like
And that was when her anger became something quieter.
More dangerous.
