Chapter 14 - ELEANOR’S CHOICE
Alexander wanted to go after them himself. Marcus persuaded him to let the detectives handle it while they traced the car.
I called Eleanor’s phone. It rang beside us on the desk.
“She thought Bell would talk to her,” I said.
“She still thinks she can fix this alone,” Alexander replied.
He was angry, but he was scared too.
An hour later, Marcus found Bell’s car outside a vacant townhouse owned by a Sterling company. Police went in and found Eleanor sitting in the front room. Bell was gone.
Eleanor had a bruise on her wrist. She refused medical help until Alexander arrived.
“I contacted her,” she admitted. “I thought she might tell me where the original trust papers were.”
“She forged a petition to take Noah,” Alexander said.
“She told me she only wanted protection from prosecution.”
“And you believed her?”
“I wanted to hear her say Hannah’s name.”
Eleanor’s voice broke. Bell had asked her to sign a statement claiming that Hannah had been confused and that Alexander knew about the transfers. Eleanor refused. Bell took Eleanor’s phone and left through the rear door.
“She said I helped her once,” Eleanor whispered. “She thought I’d do it again.”
“Did you?” I asked.
Eleanor looked at me. “When Hannah first accused her, I told Bell what Hannah had found. I gave her time to move the money.”
That was the betrayal Eleanor had spent years hiding. She had not stolen the money, but she had warned the person who did.
Alexander turned away.
“I’m sorry,” Eleanor said.
“I know.”
He could not offer more.
Back at the house, his attorney delivered another blow. Bell’s lawyers had asked the court to restrict my contact with Noah until the emergency hearing. They argued that my role in the house and the ballroom scene made me a risk to the child’s emotional well-being.
The judge had not agreed, but wanted to hear from all sides that afternoon.
Noah came down the stairs as I packed a bag for court.
“Are they sending you away?” he asked.
“I’m going to answer questions,” I said.
He took my hand. “Can I tell them what happened?”
I wished he never had to.
Alexander crouched beside us. “We’ll tell the truth. You don’t have to carry this for us.”
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At the courthouse, Bell sat across the room in a gray coat. She smiled when she saw Noah holding my hand.
Then her attorney stood and announced he had a recording of me promising the boy I would take him away from his family.
