Chapter 7 - The Night Before
Thursday evening began with thunder.
Rain struck the windows while Lillian prepared biscuit dough in the kitchen. Caleb paced through the manor, speaking angrily on the phone. Martin had disappeared, and several company accounts had been frozen.
Evelyn entered the kitchen carrying the transfer documents.
“Sign these tonight,” she ordered.
“No.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“After everything this family has given you?”
Lillian wiped flour from her hands.
“This family took my money, my name, my work, and eight years of my life.”
“You would have been nothing without Caleb.”
“I was an accountant before I met him. My parents owned a business. I had friends, savings, and a future.”
Evelyn’s lips tightened.
“You were ordinary.”
Lillian almost smiled.
“Ordinary women are still allowed to own their lives.”
Caleb entered behind his mother.
He had heard everything.
His anger came quickly. He struck the wall beside Lillian and demanded that she sign. When she refused again, he grabbed her face and shoved her against the pantry door.
The silver brooch on her dress recorded every word.
Lillian did not fight him. She protected her head and waited until he stepped back.
Then she looked at him with a calmness that unsettled him.
“Are you finished?”
Caleb stared at her bruised eye and split lip.
For the first time, he seemed ashamed.
But shame was not remorse.
He pointed toward the dining room.
“Tomorrow morning, you will make breakfast. You will sit beside me, smile, and sign those papers.”
“And if I don’t?”
“No one is coming to save you.”
Lillian tasted blood on her lip, but her voice remained steady.
“Breakfast at eight?”
Caleb mistook the question for surrender.
“Yes.”
He walked away with Evelyn.
Lillian waited until their bedroom doors closed.
Then she removed the brooch, connected it to the hidden tablet, and sent the recording to Detective Bell.
May you like
The response arrived one minute later.
We have enough. Stay near an exit. We are coming at eight.
