Chapter 15 - THE SECRET ELEANOR KEPT
Charles Thorne was not arrested that night.
Not yet.
He was questioned.
His passport was flagged.
His financial records were seized.
His political allies began issuing carefully worded statements about “serious allegations.”
Bianca disappeared before investigators obtained a warrant.
Daniel remained missing.
Preston entered protective custody.
Mara should have felt victorious.
Instead, Bianca’s final words followed her home.
You have no idea what your mother did before she died.
Mara stood before the lake at three in the morning.
Luca joined her.
“You’re thinking about Bianca.”
“Yes.”
“She wanted to unsettle you.”
“It worked.”
“She lies.”
“Sometimes.”
Mara turned.
“But the best liars use truth when it hurts more.”
Luca could not argue.
Mercer arrived the next morning with another discovery.
The safe-deposit box had a transaction history.
Eleanor visited it four days before her death.
She did not arrive alone.
The bank recorded a guest.
Daniel Cross.
Mara frowned.
“So Daniel helped hide the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“There’s more.”
Mercer placed a document on the table.
“Eleanor created a trust.”
Mara stared.
“For me?”
“No.”
Mercer hesitated.
“For a child.”
Mara looked confused.
“What child?”
“The beneficiary name was sealed.”
“When was this?”
“Twenty-three years ago.”
Mara laughed nervously.
“That makes no sense.”
She was thirty-one.
Mercer continued.
“The trust received payments from one of Charles Thorne’s private companies.”
Luca’s expression sharpened.
“Who was the child?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Mara stood.
“Why would my mother create a trust connected to Charles?”
Nobody answered.
Preston eventually did.
He called from protective custody.
“I think I know.”
Mara put him on speaker.
“How?”
“Eleanor told me once that Charles had ruined two women’s lives.”
Mara frowned.
“Who was the other woman?”
“He never said.”
“My mother?”
“One of them.”
“And the other?”
Preston hesitated.
“I think it was Bianca’s mother.”
Mara felt a chill.
Bianca’s mother, Victoria Thorne, had died when Bianca was five.
Official cause: accidental overdose.
Mara remembered framed photographs throughout the mansion.
Victoria had looked young.
Beautiful.
Sad.
Luca began tracing the trust.
By evening, Mercer found the beneficiary.
Bianca Victoria Thorne.
Mara stared at the name.
“My mother created a trust for Bianca?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mercer placed another file on the table.
“Because Eleanor was the trustee.”
Mara sat down.
“She was protecting Bianca.”
“It appears so.”
Luca frowned.
“From Charles?”
Mercer nodded.
The trust contained nearly two million dollars.
It was meant to transfer to Bianca on her twenty-fifth birthday.
It never did.
Charles dissolved it after Eleanor’s death using forged documents.
Mara felt sick.
“Bianca thinks my mother stole from her.”
“Possibly.”
Mara remembered Bianca’s hatred.
Three years of deliberate humiliation.
Calling her by the wrong name.
Destroying her belongings.
Following her to the grave.
“Charles told her my mother stole the trust money.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“And probably told her you benefited from it.”
Mara stood.
“So Bianca hated us because Charles robbed her.”
“That would explain some of it.”
“Not shooting Daniel.”
“No.”
“Not hitting me.”
“No.”
“Not everything can be blamed on Charles.”
Luca looked at her.
“That is important to remember.”
Mercer’s phone rang.
He answered.
A few seconds later, his face changed.
“Daniel Cross just surrendered to federal authorities.”
Mara’s heart jumped.
“Is he safe?”
“Yes.”
“Will he testify?”
Mercer listened.
Then looked at her.
“He says he will only speak if Mara is present.”
Two hours later, Daniel sat across from Mara in a federal interview room.
He looked exhausted.
But alive.
“I know why Bianca hates you,” he said.
Mara folded her hands.
“We found the trust.”
Daniel nodded.
“That’s part of it.”
“What is the rest?”
Daniel looked down.
“Your mother didn’t just protect Bianca’s money.”
Mara waited.
Daniel raised his eyes.
“She protected Bianca herself.”
“From whom?”
May you like
Daniel’s answer was almost a whisper.
“From her father.”
