Chapter 10 - THE CONFRONTATION
Marissa slammed the ledger shut and stood up so fast her chair rattled against the hardwood floor. She grabbed the leather book and marched out of the study, heading straight back to the morning room.
Eleanor was still sitting in the same spot, staring out at the rain.
Marissa threw the black ledger onto the mahogany table between them. It landed with a loud, heavy thud that made Eleanor jump.
"Explain this," Marissa demanded, her voice shaking with a mixture of rage and disbelief.
Eleanor looked down at the black leather cover, her expression shifting from melancholy to a cold, calculating stillness. She didn't flinch. She simply picked up her cold cup of tea and set it back down.
"You were always too sentimental, Marissa," Eleanor said quietly. "Your father was a dreamer, a man who thought ideas alone could build an empire. He didn't have the stomach for the blood required to secure power."
"You bribed state officials," Marissa said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You used company funds to buy off police commissioners and zoning boards! And Gareth... Gareth was just executing your orders, wasn't he?"
"Gareth is weak," Eleanor snapped, her eyes flashing with sudden venom. "He has your father's ambition but none of his intelligence. He made mistakes. He let his personal debts get out of hand, and he panicked. Framing Lily was his clumsy attempt to solve a problem I told him to handle quietly!"
"You knew?" Marissa gasped, taking a step back in sheer horror. "You knew he was going to accuse an eight-year-old child of theft at his own wedding?"
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"I told him to find leverage on you!" Eleanor yelled, standing up from her chair, her regal posture returning as her composure cracked into unbridled fury. "You were threatening to audit the offshore accounts! You were going to expose everything I spent thirty years building! If that meant sacrificing your daughter's feelings for a few weeks until we secured the voting shares, then so be it!"
Marissa felt as though the ground beneath her feet had split open. The monster wasn't just her brother; it was the woman who had given her life.
