Chapter 4
The echo of Arthur’s words lingered in the high-ceilinged living room, bouncing off the antique bookshelves and the Persian rugs that Faraz had collected over a lifetime of travel. Eleanor stepped back, her heel catching slightly on the edge of the rug before she steadied herself. The realization that her decade-long campaign to secure the estate had unraveled in a stroke of ink was slowly settling into her bones. Her mouth tightened into a thin, white line of pure spite.
Maya watched the exchange, her hand finally dropping completely to her side. The shock was beginning to give way to a cautious, trembling reality. She looked around the room, noticing small details she had forgotten during her long exile: the silver framed photograph of her mother on the mantelpiece—a photograph Eleanor had tried to replace with modern art—and the familiar scent of cedar and old paper that always clung to her father’s favorite reading chair.
"You can stay as long as you need to settle your belongings, Eleanor," Arthur said, shifting his weight slightly and closing the blue folder with a soft, decisive snap. "However, the locks will be recoded by five o’clock this evening, per the standard executor protocols."
"You can't do this to me," Eleanor hissed, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. She turned her glare toward Maya, her eyes flashing with a venom that made the younger woman instinctively step back. "You manipulated him. While he was sick, while he couldn't think straight, you crawled back out of the woodwork just to steal everything he built!"
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Maya swallowed hard, the lump in her throat making it difficult to speak, but she forced the words past her lips, her voice surprisingly steady despite the tears still clinging to her lashes. "I didn't steal anything, Eleanor. He was my father, too."
Arthur stepped smoothly between them, a physical barrier of calm professionalism. He extended the blue folder toward Maya, offering it handle-first like an olive branch forged in legal steel. "Miss Faraz, I believe there are several keys inside that require your attention."
