Chapter 2 - The Mask Slips Off
The sound of Eleanor’s shallow, ragged breathing filled Julian’s ears like the beat of a dying drum.
"Mom! Mom, please look at me!" Julian pleaded, his deep voice cracking into a desperate sob.
Eleanor slowly cracked her swollen left eyelid open, staring through a curtain of blood and tears into the face of her only child.
"Julian?" she whispered, her voice barely louder than a dying breath.
"I'm here, Mama, I'm right here!" he cried, tenderly sliding his trembling hand beneath her fragile neck to support her head.
His fingers immediately came away soaked in thick, warm red liquid that stained his white cuffs crimson.
A wave of hot, suffocating nausea surged through Julian’s chest as he realized the sheer scale of violence inflicted upon his mother.
"Oh God, Mom, where does it hurt? Tell me where it hurts!" Julian begged, his chest heaving with terror.
"My ribs... my shoulder... I can't breathe, Julian," Eleanor gasped, her frail body shuddering with every tiny gasp of air.
Beside them, Maria dragged herself across the blood-smeared floor, her face wet with a mixture of tears and grime.
"Sir... Mr. St. Claire..." Maria choked out, her split lip trembling as she held her bruised ribs.
Julian turned his wild, terrified eyes toward the housekeeper, finally noticing the horrific state of her bruised face and swollen jaw.
"Maria? What in God's name happened to you?!" Julian demanded, horror deepening in his voice.
"Don't worry about me, sir... please, just call an ambulance for Mrs. Eleanor," Maria begged, pressing a trembling hand to Eleanor’s cold forehead.
Julian yanked his smartphone from his suit jacket, his bloody fingers smearing the glass screen as he punched in the emergency numbers.
"This is Julian St. Claire at 4400 Whispering Pines Lane!" he shouted into the receiver before the operator could finish her greeting.
"I need an ambulance and multiple police units dispatched immediately!" he yelled, his voice echoing off the twenty-foot ceilings.
"My elderly mother has been bludgeoned with a weapon, she is bleeding from the head and cannot breathe!" he cried out in agonizing clarity.
"Send everyone you have right now!" Julian slammed the call shut and tossed the phone onto the floor.
Across the room, the sound of breaking glass broke the heavy silence.
Evelyn was slowly dragging herself up from the shattered wreckage of the display cabinet, clutching her bruised ribs and gasping for air.
Her immaculate cream dress was now coated in white dust and splinters of mahogany.
Her sleek obsidian ponytail had fallen loose, framing a face that had completely shed every ounce of human remorse.
"Julian... how could you kick me like that?!" Evelyn shrieked, tears instantly welling up in her eyes in a practiced display of theatrical victimhood.
"You kicked your own wife for this pathetic old woman?!" she cried out, stumbling forward with her hands outstretched.
Julian slowly rose from the floor, towering over the scene like an avenging titan.
The veins in his neck bulged against his collar, his knuckles white as his fists clenched at his sides.
"You dare speak to me right now?" Julian’s voice was dangerously low, vibrating with an intensity that made the crystal drops on the chandelier hum.
"You don't understand, darling! She provoked me!" Evelyn screamed, taking a cautious step back as she saw the sheer murderous fury burning in his eyes.
"She threw a vase at me! She's been losing her mind with dementia for months, Julian!" Evelyn lied rapidly, her eyes darting across the room.
"She attacked me first, and I was only defending myself with that bat because she tried to scratch my eyes out!" Evelyn sobbed, covering her face.
"Don't you dare listen to her, Mr. St. Claire!" Maria’s voice rang out, clear and trembling with righteous indignation.
Evelyn’s head snapped toward Maria, her eyes flashing with pure venom.
"Shut your mouth, you filthy immigrant maid, or I'll have you thrown into a cage!" Evelyn hissed, forgetting her innocent act for a split second.
Maria pulled herself up to her knees, looking directly into Julian’s hollow, tormented eyes.
"She hurts the old lady every single time you leave this city, sir," Maria revealed, her voice breaking the dam of silence that had held for months.
Julian stopped breathing entirely.
The grand sitting room became so intensely quiet that the soft ticking of the grandfather clock sounded like a sledgehammer striking steel.
"What did you just say?" Julian asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Every time you travel for your corporate business, sir," Maria repeated, tears streaming freely down her bruised cheeks.
"The minute your car pulls out of the driveway, the nightmare begins," Maria said with unshakeable conviction.
"She slaps her, she locks her inside the windowless pantry in the basement for hours without water, and she forces her to clean the floors on her knees!" Maria wept.
"Stop lying, you treacherous bitch!" Evelyn shrieked, lunging forward with her manicured nails bared.
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Julian stepped directly into Evelyn’s path, his arm shooting out like an iron bar to block her advance.
"Touch her, and I swear on my mother’s life you will not leave this room on your feet," Julian snarled, his voice freezing Evelyn in her tracks.
