Chapter 10 - What Eleanor Tried to Say
Ethan drove to Caroline’s townhouse himself.
Rosa insisted on coming.
Rebecca objected.
Daniel objected more strongly.
Nobody changed Rosa’s mind.
At 7:18 p.m., Caroline opened the door.
When she saw them together, something in her expression surrendered.
“You know.”
Ethan held up his phone.
“I know enough to ask.”
Caroline stepped aside.
They entered.
Her townhouse looked like a smaller version of the estate.
Tasteful.
Quiet.
Full of inherited furniture and bad memories.
Caroline poured herself water with shaking hands.
Rosa remained standing.
Ethan placed the phone on the table.
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you kill my mother?”
Caroline dropped the glass.
It shattered.
Rosa flinched.
Ethan didn’t.
Caroline stared at him.
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
“She died of cancer.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“No. It isn’t.”
She sat slowly.
For the first time since Ethan could remember, his aunt looked old.
“Three days before Eleanor died,” she began, “she changed her mind.”
Ethan said nothing.
“She had become frightened of what we’d done.”
“We?”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“Your mother and I.”
Rosa’s jaw tightened.
Caroline continued.
“She wanted you told about Lily.”
Ethan thought of Margaret’s statement.
The little girl.
His mother’s final confused words.
“What stopped her?”
“I did.”
His stomach turned.
“How?”
“I told the doctors she was disoriented.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she was heavily medicated.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No.”
Caroline’s voice shook.
“I was afraid.”
“Of losing control?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
“I convinced myself I was protecting the company. Protecting what generations built.”
“You protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
Rosa studied her.
“What did Eleanor try to do?”
Caroline looked at her.
“She asked Frederick Moss to come to the hospital.”
“He never mentioned that.”
“He never received the message.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You intercepted it.”
“Yes.”
“She also asked for you?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell me?”
Caroline looked ashamed.
“That she was sleeping.”
Ethan remembered.
He had arrived at the hospital that afternoon.
Caroline had met him outside the room.
She finally settled. Let her rest.
So he had.
His mother died two days later.
“You stole my last lucid conversation with her.”
Caroline began to cry.
“Yes.”
Ethan turned away.
Rosa watched him.
She wanted to touch his shoulder.
She didn’t.
Some grief had to be allowed its own space.
Ethan faced the window.
“Did my mother forgive herself?”
Caroline sobbed.
“No.”
He closed his eyes.
“That’s something.”
Rosa finally spoke.
“Who sent the message?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
“Who else knew Eleanor tried to confess?”
“Margaret.”
“She’s in hospice.”
“Frederick may have suspected.”
“He didn’t know about the side letter.”
Caroline wiped her face.
“Arthur Crane knew.”
“The investigator?”
“Yes.”
“He’s dead.”
Caroline’s expression changed.
Rosa noticed.
“What?”
Caroline looked down.
“Arthur’s death wasn’t an accident.”
The room froze.
Ethan turned.
“What did you say?”
“He was drunk.”
“That is not the same as murder.”
“No.”
“So why say it wasn’t an accident?”
Caroline clasped her hands.
“Because the night he crashed, he was driving to meet me.”
“Why?”
“He wanted money.”
“For what?”
“Silence.”
Rosa’s stomach tightened.
“Blackmail?”
“Yes.”
“He had copies of everything. Rosa. Lily. The DNA test. The side letter.”
Ethan walked closer.
“And?”
“I agreed to pay him.”
“How much?”
“Two million.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He died first.”
Ethan stared.
“You benefited from his death.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t mean you caused it.”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
This time he believed her.
Rosa asked, “Who else knew he was blackmailing you?”
Caroline hesitated.
“Thomas.”
Ethan went still.
“Your son.”
“Yes.”
“Did Thomas meet him?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is a lie.”
Caroline shook her head.
“I truly don’t know.”
Ethan picked up his phone.
“Daniel.”
Caroline stood.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m asking him to reopen everything he can find on Arthur Crane’s crash.”
“You cannot privately investigate a death.”
“Watch me.”
Rosa gave him a look.
He corrected himself.
“Legally.”
“Better.”
Caroline almost laughed through her tears.
Then Rosa asked, “Why is Thomas with Victoria?”
Caroline’s expression tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“Another lie.”
“I know he contacted her after Ethan ended the engagement.”
“Why?”
“He thought she could help.”
“With what?”
“The side letter.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“You told Thomas about it.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Then he knew Lily existed.”
“Yes.”
Another betrayal.
Ethan barely reacted now.
There were too many.
“He was part of hiding her?”
“Not initially.”
“Later?”
“Yes.”
Rosa’s hands curled.
“You let your son help attack me.”
Caroline looked at her.
“I didn’t approve the false criminal complaint.”
“You created the reason for it.”
“Yes.”
Rosa’s voice remained quiet.
“Do you know what the worst part is?”
Caroline waited.
“You all keep talking about money as if it explains everything.”
Rosa stepped closer.
“But you weren’t hiding numbers.”
She pointed toward herself.
“You hid a mother who thought she was alone.”
Then toward Ethan.
“You hid a father from his daughter.”
Her voice broke.
“And you hid a little girl from a family that could have loved her.”
Caroline began crying again.
Rosa did not stop.
“Lily didn’t care about your voting rights. She cared whether someone would read her the rabbit book twice.”
Ethan looked away.
“She didn’t need two hundred eighty-seven million dollars. She needed someone to help me when she had a fever and I had worked twelve hours.”
Caroline whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Rosa shook her head.
“You don’t get to start there.”
The same words she had told Margaret.
“Start with what you did.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“I hid Lily.”
“Again.”
“I hid Lily.”
“And?”
“I allowed Victoria to believe you were dangerous.”
“And?”
“I helped preserve control of the family trust.”
“And?”
Caroline’s voice broke.
“I tried to remove you from Lily’s life.”
Rosa nodded.
“That’s where sorry begins.”
Silence.
Then Ethan’s phone rang.
Daniel.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Arthur Crane’s crash report.”
“And?”
“Single vehicle. Wet road. Alcohol level above legal limit.”
“That’s known.”
“Yes, but there’s a supplemental note.”
Ethan looked at Caroline.
“What note?”
“A witness saw another car stopped near the scene.”
“What car?”
“Black Mercedes sedan.”
Caroline’s face changed.
Daniel continued.
“The witness got part of the plate.”
Ethan’s pulse quickened.
“Registered to?”
“It wasn’t enough for police to identify at the time.”
“But?”
“We cross-referenced historic Caldwell vehicles.”
Ethan already knew.
“Whose?”
“Thomas Caldwell’s.”
Caroline made a strangled sound.
“No.”
Ethan watched her.
Daniel continued.
“There’s more. Thomas’s phone records place him within two miles of the crash site.”
Caroline sank into a chair.
“My son…”
“Did he tell you where he was that night?”
“He said Boston.”
“He lied.”
Caroline began shaking.
Rosa whispered, “What if Thomas killed Crane?”
Ethan shook his head.
“We don’t know that.”
“But he may have seen him.”
“Yes.”
“And now Thomas has the side letter.”
“Yes.”
“With Victoria.”
Ethan grabbed his coat.
Caroline looked up.
“Where are you going?”
“To the hotel.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Caroline stood.
“You can’t confront Thomas.”
“Why?”
“Because if he thinks he’s cornered, he becomes reckless.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
“How reckless?”
Caroline hesitated too long.
“How reckless?”
“When he was twenty-two, he hit a pedestrian.”
Rosa stared.
“What?”
“He’d been drinking.”
“Did the person survive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Caroline looked away.
“My husband paid the family.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“And charges?”
“Dropped.”
“So Thomas learned money erases consequences.”
Caroline said nothing.
Ethan turned toward the door.
His phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
Another photograph.
This time of Thomas walking through the hotel parking lot alone.
Caption:
He knows you found Crane.
Then a second message.
Do not go to the hotel.
Ethan stared.
May you like
A third message arrived.
Thomas has a gun.
