Chapter 9 - Eleanor's SecretEleanor finally answered.
“Brooks.”
“Where are you?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“With Edwin.”
“I know.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because Preston is following you.”
Eleanor's breathing changed.
“What?”
Brooks heard Edwin in the background.
“Don't stop.”
Engine noise.
They were driving.
Brooks said,
“Where are you going?”
Eleanor answered,
“To finish something your father should have finished.”
“Meaning?”
“To retrieve Caleb's trust.”
Serena leaned closer.
Brooks put the call on speaker.
Eleanor continued.
“Arthur put it in a private vault in Santa Barbara.”
Edwin spoke.
“Preston cannot access it without Mrs. Caldwell.”
Brooks frowned.
“Then why are you taking Mom there?”
Eleanor answered,
“Because I can.”
Brooks closed his eyes.
“Mom, you are being followed by a man who sabotaged our security system and stole millions.”
“I know.”
“You didn't thirty seconds ago.”
“I suspected.”
Vivian, listening through Brooks's second phone, shouted,
“Mom, stop the car!”
Eleanor sighed.
“Your father spent his life hiding problems until they grew teeth.”
Brooks stared.
“I am done doing that.”
“Then call police.”
“I did.”
Brooks looked toward the detective beside him.
The detective checked.
Yes.
Santa Barbara County officers had been alerted.
Eleanor was using herself as bait.
Brooks swore.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you would stop me.”
“Yes!”
“Exactly.”
Family disease.
Protection through secrecy.
Again.
Serena sat beside Brooks in the car as they headed back south.
She said nothing.
Then Eleanor added,
“Serena.”
Serena flinched.
“Yes?”
“I owe you an apology.”
Brooks stared.
Serena did too.
“For what?”
“I knew Daniel Monroe had worked for Arthur.”
Serena went still.
“And you let me marry Brooks without telling me?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“I thought it no longer mattered.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“Everything everyone thought no longer mattered is trying to kill us.”
No one argued.
Eleanor continued.
“When Preston introduced you, I recognized your name.”
“Did you think I knew?”
“At first.”
“So you investigated me.”
“Yes.”
Brooks stared at the phone.
“You did what?”
“Your father taught me caution.”
“No. He taught you paranoia.”
Eleanor accepted that.
“I had a background check run.”
Serena looked wounded.
“Did you find anything?”
“No connection to Daniel's old records.”
“So you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Serena whispered,
“You never trusted me.”
Eleanor paused.
“I didn't.”
Brooks looked at Serena.
Neither did he now.
But not for the reasons his mother had.
Eleanor continued.
“Preston may have known I investigated you.”
“How?”
“He had access to company security.”
Marcus.
Corporate systems.
Maybe Preston had watched Eleanor watching Serena.
Edwin spoke from the car.
“Mrs. Caldwell, he's turning.”
Eleanor went silent.
Brooks's pulse spiked.
“Where are you?”
Edwin gave highway markers.
Police intercepted Preston's car nine miles later.
Except the driver wasn't Preston.
A hired man.
He had been paid $5,000 to follow Eleanor's SUV visibly.
Decoy.
Preston wasn't behind them.
Brooks felt cold.
“If he isn't following Mom…”
Serena finished.
“Where is he?”
Marcus called.
“Mr. Caldwell.”
Brooks answered.
“What?”
“Preston just entered the estate.”
“How?”
“Guest access.”
“Who approved?”
Marcus hesitated.
“You did.”
Brooks stared.
“What?”
“A recurring credential created last year under your account.”
Preston had administrator-level guest access.
Brooks had probably signed something without reading it.
Or Preston had created it using his credentials.
“What is he doing?”
“Security lost camera six.”
Of course.
“Where?”
“The west corridor.”
Vivian was home.
Thomas too.
And the archive office.
Brooks called Vivian.
No answer.
Again.
Then she answered in a whisper.
“Brooks.”
“Where are you?”
“Dad's study.”
“Lock the door.”
“Already did.”
“Is Preston there?”
“Yes.”
Brooks's blood went cold.
“He's outside.”
“What does he want?”
“He keeps saying Edwin has the wrong document.”
“Don't open the door.”
“I won't.”
Then a knock sounded through the phone.
Preston's voice.
“Vivian.”
She stopped breathing.
“Open up.”
Silence.
“Your brother is going to learn the truth anyway.”
Vivian whispered,
“Go away.”
Preston laughed softly.
“Ask him why Arthur changed the trust six months before he died.”
Brooks looked toward Eleanor's phone connection.
His mother went silent.
Again.
Another secret.
Preston continued through Vivian's phone.
“Ask Eleanor who Brooks's biological father really is.”
The car seemed to stop moving even though it didn't.
Brooks stared.
“What?”
Eleanor whispered,
“No.”
Preston laughed from miles away.
“Now we have everyone's attention.”
May you like
And for the first time, Brooks wondered if the fight over the company wasn't about inheritance at all.
It was about who belonged to the family.
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