CALL ME.
I did.
She answered on the first ring.
“Eleanor?”
Her voice changed when she heard me breathing.
“What happened?”
“He hit me.”
Silence.
Not shocked silence.
Controlled silence.
The kind a lawyer uses when emotion would interfere with sequence.
“Are you in immediate danger?”
“He’s asleep.”
“Can you leave?”
“Yes.”
“Then leave.”
I looked toward the locked bathroom door.
Something stopped me.
Not love.
That had become far too complicated a word.
“I need tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Rebecca—”
“No. We have spent eight weeks building a financial case. None of it matters more than you being alive to use it.”
“I understand.”
“Then leave.”
I pressed my palm to the cold marble counter.
“Victoria is coming tomorrow.”
Another pause.
“Why?”
“To move in.”
Rebecca swore softly.
I had never heard her swear.
“You think it’s connected?”
“I know it is.”
“How?”
“Because suddenly they both need her inside this house before my birthday.”
Rebecca went silent.
My fortieth birthday was six weeks away.
To anyone else, forty meant candles and black balloons.
To Adrian, Victoria and my attorneys, it meant something else.
On my fortieth birthday, the final principal of the Vale Family Trust would become available directly to me.
My father had created it after selling his manufacturing company years before his death.
Adrian knew the trust existed.
He did not know everything about its protections.
At least I had believed he didn’t.
“I can leave in the morning,” I whispered. “But I want to know what she brings.”
“You don’t confront them.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t accuse them.”
“I won’t.”
“You keep your phone on you.”
“Yes.”
“And if he touches you again, you get out. Immediately.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca exhaled.
“Send Daniel’s package to me as soon as you receive it.”
“I will.”
Then she added quietly, “Eleanor?”
“Yes?”
“What happened tonight isn’t useful evidence first.”
My throat tightened.
“It’s something he did to you.”
That nearly broke me.
Not Adrian’s violence.
Not the blood.
Kindness.
Kindness almost always did.
“I know,” I whispered.
But I didn’t cry.
