Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN DANIEL CALLED MOTHER
“Put the gun down.”
A man's voice came from behind Victor.
Victor turned.
The police officer stood in the chapel doorway.
Two constables were with him.
“Drop it.”
Victor hesitated.
Then lowered the pistol.
Eleanor stared at Clara.
“You planned this.”
Clara nodded.
“I learned something after falling off a cliff.”
“What?”
“Never face monsters without witnesses.”
The officer arrested Victor for unlawful possession and threatening behavior.
Eleanor wasn't arrested.
She hadn't held the weapon.
And she denied everything Margaret said.
But the police confiscated the documents.
Including Thomas Bennett's will.
By morning, news of the second will had reached the family attorneys.
Daniel stormed into the library.
“What have you done?”
Clara sat beside her attorney.
“Protected my child.”
Daniel threw the newspaper onto the table.
The headline read:
BENNETT FORTUNE IN DISPUTE AFTER LOST WILL DISCOVERED.
“You're humiliating this family.”
Clara looked at him.
“You cut a rope while I was hanging over a cliff.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“You can't prove it.”
“Yet.”
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“You think that document saves you?”
“It scares you.”
He leaned over the table.
“You don't know what you're doing.”
“Then explain it.”
Daniel glanced toward the attorney.
Clara understood.
“Leave us.”
Her attorney hesitated.
“Mrs. Bennett—”
“Wait outside.”
Once they were alone, Clara faced Daniel.
“Margaret says Eleanor isn't your mother.”
Daniel's face changed.
“She's lying.”
“Is she?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
Clara waited.
Finally, he spoke.
“I was six when my real mother disappeared.”
Clara went still.
“You remember her?”
“Pieces.”
“What was her name?”
“Rose.”
“Rose what?”
“Rose Bennett.”
Clara frowned.
“Your father's first wife?”
Daniel nodded.
“Everyone told me she abandoned us.”
“And Eleanor?”
“Married my father a year later.”
Clara stared at him.
“You knew Eleanor wasn't your biological mother.”
“Of course.”
“Then why does everyone call her your mother?”
“She raised me.”
Clara's expression hardened.
“She raised you into a man who tried to murder his pregnant wife.”
Daniel flinched.
Clara continued.
“What happened to Rose?”
“I told you.”
“She disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that?”
Daniel didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
“Because when I was twelve, I found one of her necklaces in Eleanor's jewelry box.”
Clara felt cold.
“Did you ask Eleanor?”
“She told me my father gave it to her.”
“And you believed her?”
“I was twelve.”
“What do you believe now?”
Daniel walked toward the fireplace.
“I believe asking questions gets people killed.”
Clara stared at him.
“You've known all these years.”
“I knew enough.”
“And instead of stopping Eleanor, you became her.”
Daniel spun around.
“You don't understand that woman.”
“I understand her perfectly.”
“No.”
His voice rose.
“You don't.”
He moved closer.
“When I was fourteen, I tried to run away.”
Clara waited.
“She found me at the train station.”
Daniel's face had gone distant.
“She brought me home.”
“What happened?”
“She locked me in the cellar for four days.”
Clara's anger didn't disappear.
But she saw something else now.
A frightened child buried somewhere inside the man.
Daniel continued.
“She told me if I ever left again, she'd tell police I killed my mother.”
Clara stared at him.
“Did you?”
“No!”
His answer came instantly.
“Then why were you afraid?”
“Because she showed me a dress covered in blood.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“She said my fingerprints were on the knife.”
“What knife?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“I was six, Clara.”
He looked broken.
“I believed her.”
Clara thought of Margaret.
Margaret had said Daniel once begged her to remain silent after Thomas died.
Maybe he had been afraid then.
But fear didn't explain the cliff.
Clara stood.
“You had a choice yesterday.”
Daniel's eyes filled with shame.
“I know.”
“You could have pulled me up.”
“I know.”
“You cut the rope.”
“I know.”
“You pushed Margaret.”
Daniel looked away.
Clara's voice became quiet.
“You chose her.”
Daniel whispered.
“I chose survival.”
“No.”
Clara shook her head.
“You chose yourself.”
She walked toward the door.
Daniel spoke behind her.
“Clara.”
She stopped.
“There is something Mother doesn't know.”
Clara turned.
Daniel reached inside his coat.
He removed a folded piece of paper.
“I found this in Father's desk after he died.”
Clara opened it.
It was a letter from Thomas.
Only one sentence had been written across the page.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, FIND ROSE AT BLACKWOOD HOUSE.
Clara stared at Daniel.
“What is Blackwood House?”
“An abandoned estate forty miles north.”
“Did you go there?”
Daniel's silence answered.
“Why not?”
“Because Eleanor burned it down three days after Father died.”
Clara looked at the letter again.
Daniel whispered.
“Margaret thinks my mother disappeared.”
He swallowed.
“I think my father knew she was alive.”
Clara looked up.
“And if Rose survived…”
May you like
Daniel nodded.
“…then Eleanor has spent twenty years hiding something much bigger than a forged will.”
