Chapter 6 - WHY ELEANOR REFUSED TO LEAVE
Daniel slept for less than an hour.
At six in the morning, he found Eleanor already awake at the kitchen table.
She was wearing the robe he had bought her at O’Hare years ago.
The ceramic cat sat beside her coffee mug.
“You saw it,” she said.
He pulled out the chair across from her.
“Paige showed me.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“I asked her not to.”
“Why?”
“You would blame yourself.”
“I already do.”
“That’s why.”
Daniel looked at her swollen hands.
“Why did you stay?”
“She needed someone.”
“Paige?”
“Yes.”
“She’s nineteen.”
“So were you once.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Eleanor didn’t.
“Being nineteen does not magically make your mother stop being your mother.”
“Vanessa hurt you.”
“I know.”
“She stole from you.”
“I know.”
“You still protected her daughter.”
“She’s your daughter too, in every way that mattered for eight years.”
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
He had attended Paige’s middle-school choir concert.
Taught her parallel parking in an empty high-school lot.
Sat outside an emergency room when she broke her wrist playing volleyball.
Signed apartment guarantor forms for a summer internship.
He had never called her his daughter because he feared replacing Scott.
Maybe restraint had become distance.
“Mom, Paige thought if she told me, I’d disappear.”
Eleanor’s mouth tightened.
“She learned that from Vanessa.”
“Meaning?”
“Vanessa has been terrified you’d leave since the day you married her.”
Daniel sat back.
“That doesn’t explain this.”
“I didn’t say it excused it.”
“Did she ever tell you why she thought I’d leave?”
Eleanor looked at her coffee.
“Your travel.”
“I traveled before we got married.”
“You weren’t gone eighteen months before.”
“I came home every six weeks.”
“Sometimes eight.”
He stared at her.
Eleanor held his gaze.
“You want the truth? You were married to the company for a while.”
Daniel looked away.
The words hurt because they were accurate.
He had believed providing money excused absence.
Vanessa had believed something else.
Neither belief explained bruises.
But one might explain the fear Vanessa turned into control.
“What happened with the condo project?”
Eleanor asked.
Daniel told her what Paige had shown him.
She nodded slowly.
“I knew there was a property.”
“How?”
“Vanessa used to argue with Troy in the garage.”
“Did you know she was using your money?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you figure it out?”
“August.”
“The same time you tried to leave.”
Eleanor nodded.
“I saw a bank alert. Eight thousand dollars transferred to a card I didn’t recognize.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“She put some back.”
“How much?”
“Two thousand.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Eleanor flinched.
Daniel immediately lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
She wrapped both hands around the coffee cup.
“Vanessa cried.”
He looked at her.
“She told me she’d made a mistake. She said Troy promised the condo would sell before anyone noticed. She said Paige would lose school if everything collapsed.”
“So you gave her permission?”
“No.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because the next morning Paige came downstairs with a suitcase.”
Daniel frowned.
“She was leaving?”
“She said she was going to Arizona to live with Scott.”
“That would’ve lasted three days.”
“I know.”
“Did Vanessa stop her?”
“No.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“She told her to go.”
Daniel stared.
“Vanessa said?”
“She said if Paige loved her father more, she could find out how much he cared.”
Daniel pictured Vanessa saying it.
Not screaming.
Vanessa could be cruelest when quiet.
“What did Paige do?”
“She went upstairs and unpacked.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“To protect her.”
“To make sure somebody in this house behaved like an adult.”
Footsteps sounded.
Both of them stopped.
Paige entered the kitchen.
She looked from Daniel to Eleanor.
“You told him.”
“He already knew.”
Paige poured coffee.
Daniel watched her.
“Who else knows about Troy?”
“No one.”
“Did he ever come here when I was gone?”
“All the time.”
“For what?”
“Money.”
Eleanor looked up sharply.
“You never told me that.”
Paige shrugged.
“You never asked.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Did your mother give him cash?”
“Sometimes.”
“From Grandma’s account?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he know about the sale?”
Paige hesitated.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened against the table.
“How?”
“Mom told him.”
“When?”
“July.”
The month she opened the acquisition packet.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“Do you have texts?”
“Some.”
“Send them.”
Paige opened her phone.
As she searched, Eleanor asked, “What are you going to do?”
Daniel answered carefully.
“First, we freeze your card.”
“Done.”
“Then we document the medical findings.”
Eleanor frowned.
“Daniel.”
“Then we talk to a lawyer.”
“I don’t want police at the house.”
“I didn’t say police.”
“Yet.”
He met her eyes.
“No. Not yet.”
Paige looked up.
“I found something.”
She handed him the phone.
A text thread between Vanessa and Troy.
TROY: We’re out of time.
VANESSA: I know.
TROY: Get D to sign before Christmas.
VANESSA: I’m working on it.
TROY: And the old lady?
Vanessa’s reply appeared three minutes later.
VANESSA: She goes first. He listens to her too much.
Daniel scrolled.
One week later:
TROY: What if he finds the debt?
VANESSA: By then the money will be in the house.
TROY: You trust him that much?
VANESSA: I trust paperwork.
Daniel set down the phone.
Paige whispered, “There’s more.”
A photograph followed the messages.
A draft deed.
The Hinsdale property.
Two names typed beneath PROPOSED OWNERS:
DANIEL MERCER
VANESSA MERCER
Below it was a mortgage application worksheet showing a down payment of $1.8 million.
Source of funds:
MERCER ROUTE SYSTEMS SALE PROCEEDS.
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
Vanessa was still upstairs.
Then Eleanor whispered, “That’s why she wanted me gone.”
Daniel nodded.
Paige shook her head.
“No.”
Both of them looked at her.
“That’s not all of it.”
“What else?”
Paige’s face tightened.
“Mom didn’t just want Grandma out of the house.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“She wanted you to believe Grandma was losing her mind.”
