Chapter 12 - The Real EleanorDaniel ran upstairs.
The humming stopped.
Sophie was safe with the detective.
Mara followed.
Samuel remained below.
They searched every room.
Nothing.
Then Sophie appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Daddy.”
Daniel rushed to her.
“What happened?”
“The detective said nobody was upstairs.”
Sophie pointed down the hall.
“Then who is in Grandma's room?”
Daniel followed her.
The bedroom door was open.
A woman sat at Eleanor's vanity.
Her back was turned.
Silver hair.
White blouse.
Eleanor's ring.
She slowly stood.
Daniel's heart pounded.
The woman turned.
She was not Eleanor.
She was younger.
Maybe fifty.
But the resemblance was uncanny.
Mara whispered,
“Lillian.”
The woman smiled.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared.
“You're alive.”
“I never died.”
“Who was buried at the funeral?”
Lillian's expression hardened.
“Eleanor.”
Daniel could barely breathe.
“Why?”
“Because she needed everyone to believe she had escaped the consequences.”
Lillian looked toward the hallway.
“Thomas told you I was hiding.”
“He lied.”
“Yes.”
“Where was Eleanor?”
“Everywhere.”
Lillian walked toward the window.
“She arranged the thefts. Thomas moved the money. Victor manipulated the legal paperwork. Richard created the false accounts.”
“And you?”
“I tried to stop them.”
Daniel's voice was sharp.
“Then why did you let my family think you were Eleanor?”
“Because Nathan made me promise.”
“To protect us?”
“To protect you.”
Lillian looked at Sophie.
“And now the same people are trying to use her.”
Samuel entered the room.
Lillian looked at him.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Samuel smiled.
“I was tired of being dead.”
Daniel turned.
“Tell me the whole story.”
Lillian nodded.
But before she spoke, a gunshot exploded outside.
The windows shattered.
Daniel threw Sophie to the floor.
Samuel tackled Lillian.
Mara hit the ground.
Two more shots tore through the room.
Then silence.
Daniel crawled toward Sophie.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Samuel looked outside.
“No shooter.”
“How?”
“Professional.”
Then Lillian's face changed.
“Thomas.”
Daniel stood.
“He followed us.”
“No.”
Lillian pointed at the floor.
A bullet had struck the wooden boards.
Beside it lay a small metal cylinder.
Daniel picked it up.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
Lillian stared.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
“That contains the original trust agreement.”
Samuel looked at her.
“You thought it was destroyed.”
“I did.”
Daniel held the cylinder.
“Then why would someone shoot at us?”
Lillian whispered,
“Because they don't want you to read it.”
The family gathered in the hidden room.
The microfilm revealed the original agreement.
Daniel read aloud.
“The trust remains under family control until the youngest direct descendant turns eighteen.”
He looked at Sophie.
“She isn't eighteen.”
Lillian nodded.
“Which means nobody should have been able to take control.”
Daniel continued.
“Unless the legal beneficiary is altered.”
He turned the page.
There was an amendment.
Signed six years earlier.
The beneficiary was no longer Sophie.
It was another name.
MARA VALE.
Mara staggered backward.
“I never signed that.”
Samuel stared at her.
“I believe you.”
Daniel looked closer.
At the bottom was a witness signature.
He recognized it.
It belonged to his mother.
But Lillian shook her head.
“That isn't my signature.”
Daniel felt something inside him collapse.
“Then whose is it?”
Lillian whispered,
“Eleanor's.”
She looked toward the door.
May you like
And then she said the sentence nobody expected.
“She is still inside this house.”
