Chapter 17 - The Last ThreatMaya did not see the blanket.
Thank God.
Marcus intercepted the package before it reached the house.
But I saw it.
And for a moment, the cold part of me disappeared.
I wanted to destroy something.
Daniel arrived within the hour. Police followed. The package was logged, photographed, tested.
Eleanor denied everything.
Of course she did.
Her attorney called it “a cruel attempt to frame a vulnerable pregnant woman.”
Then Marcus found the delivery footage.
Not Eleanor.
Her mother.
Celia Hartwell.
The same woman who had left that voicemail calling Maya spoiled.
Celia had worn sunglasses and a scarf, but the camera caught her license plate.
When police questioned her, she folded in less than twenty minutes.
Eleanor had asked her to “return sentimental property.”
Celia claimed she had not known the blanket was damaged.
No one believed her.
That night, Eleanor called from a blocked number.
I answered because Daniel told me to keep her talking.
“You have ruined my life,” she said.
“You did that.”
“That child ruins everything. Just like her mother did.”
I gripped the phone.
Daniel, beside me, pointed to the recording device.
Keep going.
Eleanor’s breathing was ragged.
“You think Maya is innocent? She watches. She judges. Sarah trained her to own you.”
“She is a child.”
“She is an obstacle.”
There it was.
Clear.
Ugly.
Recorded.
I said quietly, “To what?”
Eleanor laughed.
“To the life I was promised.”
“By whom?”
Silence.
Then the line went dead.
Daniel looked at me.
“That sounded like more than greed.”
He was right.
Someone had promised Eleanor something.
Access. Money. Position.
Maybe even help.
We found the answer two days later in her hidden account.
Payments from a company called Wrenmont Advisory.
I recognized the name immediately.
A rival firm.
May you like
One that had tried to buy Sterling Holdings twice.
And failed.
