Chapter 65 - THE MOTHER’S FINAL CONFESSION IN CHAINS
A scream tore through the frozen stillness of the cemetery, coming from the back of the federal transport van parked fifty yards down the winding drive.
Julian sprinted through the knee-deep snow, drawing his sidearm, Arthur running right behind him with his shotgun raised. The rear doors of the transport van were wide open, the two federal marshals who had been guarding Eleanor lying unconscious in the snow, their heads bleeding from heavy blunt-force trauma.
Inside the van, Eleanor was on her knees, her hands still zip-tied, her gray hair tangled across her face as a red laser dot danced between her shoulder blades.
"MOM!" Julian roared, diving into the van to cover her body with his own.
"Don't shoot!" Eleanor wailed, her frail body shaking against Julian's chest. "Julian, please! Don't let them kill Maria! They took Maria!"
Julian gripped Eleanor's shoulders, his eyes scanning the pitch-black tree line where the laser sight had vanished into the swirling blizzard. "Who took her, Mom? Talk to me! Was it Katherine's men? Was it Charles?"
Eleanor looked up at him, and for the first time, Julian saw the bottomless, terrifying truth in the eyes of the woman who had held his hand through thirty-five years of life.
"It was Charles," she wept, her tears freezing on her cheeks. "He was here, Julian. He walked up to the van while you were inside the vault. He told me that Maria’s time was up because she found the ledger under the floorboards."
"Why did you lie to me?" Julian shouted, the agony finally ripping out of his chest, echoing across the silent cemetery. "Why did you let Victoria beat you with that bat? Why did you stay in that house and let that woman destroy your dignity if you knew Charles was out there?"
Eleanor clutched his coat lapels with trembling fingers, her voice breaking into ragged, desperate gasps. "Because Charles told me that if I ever left that house, if I ever called the police, if I ever fought back against Victoria... he would send a sniper to your office, Julian! Victoria wasn't just abusing me because she was evil—she was torturing me on Charles's orders to see how much pain I would endure before I broke the covenant!"
Julian stared at her, the monstrous scale of his father's cruelty crashing down on him like an avalanche. "He tested you? He used my wife to torture you to see if you would betray him?"
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"He didn't want the money, Julian," Eleanor whispered, her voice dropping into a terrified shiver. "Charles already has billions in Switzerland. He wanted to break your spirit so you would hand over the primary charter without asking questions. And now he has Maria... and he's taking her to the foundry."
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