Part 9
Leah looked as if she had been struck.
Eleanor regretted it immediately.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Leah closed the document.
“You are right,” she said.
Eleanor sat down.
“No. I was cruel.”
“You were also right.”
“That does not make it less cruel.”
Leah sat opposite her.
“What do you want?”
Eleanor looked at the wet jacket, now hanging from the back of a dining chair.
“I want yesterday not to have happened.”
“That is not available.”
“No.”
“What is?”
Eleanor did not know.
By evening, the story had reached national news sites.
A second video appeared, this one showing Celeste pointing toward Eleanor’s handbag while Eleanor knelt in the pool. The audio was clear enough to capture her accusation.
Search her bag. She stole it.
The Arden Foundation repeated its statement.
Adrian Vale released none.
Commentators praised his intervention anyway. His photograph appeared beside headlines calling him a “protective heir” and “billionaire gentleman,” though the Vale family’s fortune was considerably smaller than rumor suggested and Adrian had done little beyond helping an older woman stand.
Eleanor’s name was misspelled in three articles.
Mara called shortly after nine.
Her voice was low.
“I think someone accessed the security system remotely.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet. Thomas found an administrator login at four eighteen yesterday. The credentials belonged to a contractor.”
“Which contractor?”
“Westbridge Digital.”
Eleanor waited.
Mara exhaled. “Westbridge handles cybersecurity for the Arden Foundation.”
“Does Ruth know?”
“Yes.”
“Does Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
Another pause.
“Because I was suspended this afternoon.”
Eleanor straightened.
“For recording the footage?”
“For forwarding estate security material without authorization.”
“Adrian allowed that?”
“He objected. Lydia said the foundation’s insurers required an internal review.”
“Paid leave?”
“Yes.”
The same phrase.
The same removal.
“Mara,” Eleanor said, “did you alter the clip?”
“No.”
“Did you record it before or after Celeste was accused?”
“Before Adrian opened your bag. I was reviewing the camera because a server told me there had been an accident near the pool.”
“Why was the camera there?”
“We installed it last month after wine disappeared from the outdoor cellar. Celeste didn’t know.”
“How long is your recording?”
“Forty-six seconds.”
“What does it show?”
Mara described the image.
Eleanor’s black handbag behind the champagne table. Celeste approaching while Eleanor was away. Celeste looking toward the staircase. Her left hand holding the brooch. Her right hand opening the bag. The brooch disappearing inside. Celeste closing the zipper and moving away.
Then Eleanor returning with the shawl.
“It is clear?” Eleanor asked.
“Yes.”
“Then they will not win.”
Mara’s laugh held no humor.
“They don’t have to win. They have to make it expensive for everyone else to keep going.”
The board meeting began at nine the next morning in the Seacliff conference room.
Eleanor was not invited.
She sat at home wearing ordinary clothes, a pale blue blouse and gray trousers, while Leah worked a hospital shift. Reporters waited near the end of the street. One knocked at ten, another at ten thirty, and a third left a business card beneath the ceramic frog, which Leah had returned after hiding the spare key in a less visible place.
At eleven fifteen, Eleanor received a text from an unknown number.
Please meet me privately. I can explain. —Celeste
Eleanor deleted it.
Two minutes later, another arrived.
The center will close if my father withdraws. Children will lose treatment because of this.
Eleanor did not delete that one.
At noon, Adrian called.
“The board voted to suspend acceptance of Arden funds pending the audit.”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“What does that mean for the center?”
“Construction stops in three weeks unless we replace the bridge financing.”
“Can you?”
“Not quickly.”
“Did the board discuss the statement?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They authorized Ruth to continue negotiating.”
“With me.”
“Yes.”
“Did you vote?”
“I voted against it.”
“How many others?”
“Two.”
“Out of?”
“Nine.”
Eleanor looked through the window at the reporters’ cars.
“Your mother?”
“She abstained.”
“That is a vote with fewer fingerprints.”
Adrian was silent.
“I’m sorry,” Eleanor said. “That was unkind.”
“It was accurate.”
“Accuracy does not prevent unkindness.”
“No. But today I’m less troubled by that distinction.”
She heard papers shifting on his end.
“We recovered the Bellweather letter from the firm,” he said. “It confirms four transfers from the Arden Foundation were recorded as received before they were actually made. Two were later completed. Two remain outstanding the Arden Foundation were recorded as received before they were actually made. Two were later completed. Two remain outstanding.”
“How much remains missing?”
“Two point one million.”
“Where did it go?”
“We don’t know.”
“And the envelope at Seacliff?”
“Still missing.”
“What about the security contractor?”
“The login came from an Arden Foundation office address. Westbridge says the credentials were compromised.”
“Do they know by whom?”
“Not yet.”
“Does Celeste work at the foundation?”
“She is vice chair.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Of course she was.
“I received a message from her,” she said.
“What did it say?”
Eleanor read it aloud.
Adrian swore under his breath.
“Do not meet her alone.”
“I had not planned to.”
“Send screenshots to Ruth.”
“Is that an instruction?”
“It is a request.”
“Better.”
Before they ended the call, Adrian said, “The offer was not my idea.”
“But you knew about it.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“And you did not call.”
“I didn’t know what to say.”
“You could have said that.”
“I’m saying it now.”
Eleanor considered this.
“All right.”
It was not forgiveness. It was simply the first answer he had given that did not try to improve itself.
Celeste came to the house at three.
She parked two blocks away and walked past the reporters wearing dark glasses and a beige coat despite the July heat. Eleanor saw her through the living-room window.
She considered not opening the door.
Then she thought of thirty-two years spent opening doors for Celeste’s family.
May you like
She unlocked it but left the chain in place.
“You should leave,” Eleanor said.
