Chapter 7 - DANIEL'S DEAD MOTHER
Rose Bennett had survived.
For twenty years, Eleanor had convinced the world otherwise.
Rose led them to a small cottage several miles away.
She locked the door.
Then stared at Clara's stomach.
“You're Daniel's wife.”
Clara nodded.
“And that's his child?”
“Yes.”
Rose closed her eyes.
“Then Eleanor will never stop.”
Clara sat opposite her.
“Tell me everything.”
Rose looked toward the window.
“I married Thomas when I was twenty-one.”
She smiled sadly.
“He wasn't perfect.”
“But he was kind.”
“Eleanor was my closest friend.”
Margaret stared at her.
Rose laughed bitterly.
“She wanted my husband.”
“And the Bennett fortune.”
“When Daniel was six, she invited me to Blackwood House.”
Rose's hands trembled.
“She said Thomas was having an affair.”
Clara already knew what came next.
“She drugged you.”
“Yes.”
“When I woke up, I was chained in that cellar.”
Margaret wiped tears from her face.
“Why didn't she kill you?”
“She needed me alive.”
“Why?”
“Thomas's original trust required my signature before certain assets could be transferred.”
Clara understood.
“So she forced you to sign.”
“For years.”
“And Thomas?”
“She convinced him I had run away.”
Rose looked ashamed.
“I had been unhappy.”
“He believed her?”
“For a while.”
“Then he discovered the truth.”
Rose nodded.
“He came to Blackwood.”
“The letter said he would return with police.”
“He never did.”
“Eleanor killed him.”
“I believe so.”
Rose stood.
“After Thomas died, Victor came.”
Clara's eyes widened.
“Victor?”
“He was younger.”
Rose nodded.
“He set the house on fire.”
“How did you survive?”
“A section of the cellar collapsed.”
Rose pointed toward the woods.
“I escaped through the coal tunnel.”
“Why didn't you go to police?”
“I did.”
Everyone became silent.
“What happened?”
“The officer I spoke to called Eleanor.”
Rose laughed bitterly.
“By that evening, men were looking for me.”
“So you disappeared.”
“I had no money.”
“No documents.”
“No one I trusted.”
She looked at Margaret.
“I didn't know whether Margaret was alive.”
Margaret took her hand.
Rose continued.
“I've lived under different names ever since.”
Clara leaned forward.
“Daniel thinks you abandoned him.”
Pain crossed Rose's face.
“I know.”
“He thinks he might have killed you.”
Rose's expression changed.
“What?”
Clara explained Eleanor's story about the bloody dress and knife.
Rose stood so quickly her chair fell.
“That monster.”
“Daniel believed her.”
Rose began pacing.
“I need to see him.”
Clara stopped her.
“No.”
“He's my son.”
“He tried to kill me.”
Rose stared at her.
Clara continued.
“He cut my rescue rope.”
Rose went pale.
“He pushed Margaret off the cliff.”
Rose looked at Margaret's broken arm.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Rose sat slowly.
“My little boy…”
“He isn't a little boy anymore.”
Clara's voice softened.
“Whatever Eleanor did to him explains his fear.”
“It does not excuse what he did.”
Rose looked at Clara.
Clara nodded.
“Exactly.”
Rose wiped her eyes.
“What do you need?”
“Evidence.”
Rose looked toward a cabinet.
“I have twenty years of it.”
She opened the cabinet.
Inside were bank statements.
Letters.
Copies of forged signatures.
Photographs.
Clara stared.
“You kept everything.”
“I spent twenty years waiting for someone who could use it.”
Samuel smiled.
“We can.”
Then someone knocked.
Everyone froze.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Rose's face changed.
“That's the signal.”
“What signal?”
“A man brings supplies.”
Rose opened the door cautiously.
Nobody was there.
Only a package.
Samuel picked it up.
“No return address.”
Inside was a phone.
It began ringing.
Clara answered.
“Hello?”
Daniel's voice came through.
“Clara.”
She looked at Rose.
“Where are you?”
Daniel asked.
“Why?”
“Mother knows you found Blackwood.”
Clara's heart pounded.
“How?”
“She has Victor's men watching every road.”
“Victor is injured.”
“That won't stop her.”
Clara looked outside.
“What do you want?”
“To help you.”
Clara laughed.
“You cut my rope.”
“I know.”
“You don't get to become my hero now.”
“I'm not trying to.”
His voice broke.
“I'm trying to do one decent thing before this ends.”
Clara heard something behind him.
A door.
Then Eleanor's voice.
“Daniel?”
He whispered urgently.
“Listen to me.”
Clara tightened her grip on the phone.
“Mother knows Rose is alive.”
Rose froze.
Daniel continued.
“And she's coming for her tonight.”
The call ended.
Clara ran toward the window.
Headlights appeared between the trees.
Not one car.
Five.
Rose grabbed her shotgun.
Margaret whispered.
“She's here.”
Clara looked at the evidence filling the cabinet.
Then at the approaching cars.
May you like
Eleanor had spent twenty years burying Rose Bennett.
Tonight she had come to finish the job.
