Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN WHO REFUSED TO KNEEL
Emily left the hospital against Eleanor’s old doctor’s recommendation.
A new physician cleared her under strict conditions.
Rest.
Monitoring.
No unnecessary stress.
Emily laughed when she heard the last one.
“Should I move to another planet?”
David did not laugh.
They moved into a federal safe residence.
For the first time in weeks, there were no Blackwood portraits on the walls.
No family staff.
No hidden rooms.
No Eleanor.
Emily slept for almost twelve hours.
When she woke, David was sitting beside the window with a laptop.
“You’re working.”
“No.”
“You have your chairman face.”
“I don’t have a chairman face.”
“You absolutely do.”
He closed the laptop.
“How do you feel?”
“Like your mother made me wash her feet twelve hours after poisoning me.”
His jaw tightened.
Emily sighed.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you imagine ten thousand ways to punish her.”
“Only nine thousand.”
She smiled.
Then became serious.
“David, I want to see her.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t asking permission.”
“No.”
“She knows who the Steward is.”
“She nearly had our son taken.”
“Which is why she may talk to me.”
“She hates you.”
“Exactly.”
He stared.
Emily rested a hand over her stomach.
“She thinks I’m weak.”
“You’re eight months pregnant.”
“That isn’t weak.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“She sees me as an outsider. Something beneath her. If I walk into that room after everything she did, she’ll want to prove she still has power over me.”
David understood.
“And when she tries…”
“She talks.”
Eleanor agreed to the meeting.
Of course she did.
She sat behind glass in a federal detention facility wearing plain clothing.
Without the burgundy gowns and diamonds, she seemed smaller.
Emily entered alone.
David watched through security cameras from another room.
Eleanor smiled.
“You look terrible.”
Emily sat.
“You look poor.”
David almost smiled.
Eleanor’s expression tightened.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
Emily placed a photograph of the four-year-old boy on the table.
“Who is he?”
Eleanor glanced at it.
“A child.”
“My child?”
“Possibly.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know B-17.”
Eleanor’s eyes changed.
Very slightly.
Emily leaned forward.
“There.”
“What?”
“That.”
Eleanor stared.
“You’re afraid.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Who is the Steward?”
“Go home, Emily.”
“I don’t have one. Your agents broke into it.”
Eleanor’s jaw tightened.
Emily continued.
“You lost the money.”
Silence.
“You lost Halcyon.”
Silence.
“You lost David.”
Eleanor’s breathing changed.
“And Liam knows you never loved him.”
“Enough.”
Emily smiled.
“There you are.”
Eleanor leaned toward the glass.
“You stupid girl. You think David loves you because he protects you?”
Emily said nothing.
“He loves the idea of saving you.”
Still nothing.
“You gave him weakness.”
Nothing.
Eleanor’s voice rose.
“You gave him a child that made him vulnerable.”
Emily finally responded.
“You stole my first child because you were afraid of an audit.”
“I saved everything.”
“No.”
Emily leaned forward.
“You delayed it.”
Eleanor froze.
Emily knew she had struck the right place.
“Thomas wrote the clause. My pregnancy triggered the process anyway, didn’t it?”
Silence.
“That’s why someone else became involved.”
Eleanor looked away.
“The Steward.”
No response.
“He outranks you.”
Eleanor’s eyes snapped back.
Emily smiled.
“He owns you.”
Eleanor slammed her palm against the table.
“Nobody owns me!”
The shout echoed.
Emily waited.
Eleanor realized too late.
“Then who gave the order for B-17?”
Eleanor said nothing.
“Who is he?”
Nothing.
Emily stood.
“I’ll find him.”
Eleanor laughed.
“No, you won’t.”
Emily paused at the door.
“Why?”
Eleanor’s smile returned.
“Because you already know him.”
Emily stopped.
David leaned toward the monitor.
May you like
Eleanor whispered:
“The Steward stood at your wedding.”
