Chapter 8 - The Recording
Nathan helped Olivia sit up carefully, keeping his body between her and Scarlett.
“Are you hurt?” he asked softly.
Olivia shook her head, though tears slipped down her cheeks.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
“I know.”
That hurt him most.
Not the mansion. Not the scandal. Not Scarlett’s excuses already forming.
The fact that Olivia, who had walked into that house trying to give her sister one last chance, was now sitting on the marble floor afraid to move.
Eleanor stepped closer and reached for Olivia’s hand.
Olivia pulled away.
Eleanor stopped.
The pain on Eleanor’s face was deserved.
Nathan lifted Olivia’s phone.
Scarlett’s voice played from the speaker, sharp and clear.
“That baby doesn’t make you family.”
Then Olivia’s voice: “Scarlett, stop.”
Then Scarlett: “I told the staff to lock the side entrances too.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Scarlett backed away.
“That proves nothing,” she said.
Nathan tapped the screen again.
This time the recording caught the sound of the crystal bowl breaking.
Olivia begging.
Scarlett threatening.
The shove.
The fall.
The heel striking marble.
Then Scarlett’s voice again: “You should’ve left when I told you.”
The foyer became unbearably still.
Eleanor turned toward the glass console table and pointed to the security camera tucked near the upper wall.
“The house recorded it too,” she said.
Scarlett looked up.
For the first time in her life, she looked small.
Nathan called the attorney first.
Then the police.
Scarlett lunged toward him. “You’re calling the police on family?”
Nathan looked down at Olivia.
Then back at Scarlett.
“You stopped being family the second you put her on that floor.”
Olivia reached for his hand.
He took it.
The front doors remained open behind them, letting cold air pour into the beautiful room Scarlett had tried to turn into a cage.
Outside, headlights swept across the driveway.
May you like
Help was coming.
And Scarlett could do nothing but stand among the crystal pieces and watch the truth arrive.
