Chapter 2 - The Maid Discovers The Hidden Sealed Envelope In Rain
The rain poured down in heavy sheets, soaking sixty-two-year-old Eleanor Sterling as she sat on the wet stone driveway.
The framed family photo lay shattered on the cold marble, shards of wet glass reflecting the harsh flash of overhead thunder.
Maria, the young live-in maid, knelt beside Eleanor, her hands shaking as she picked up the small, yellowed envelope from the pavement.
Written across the front in dark, precise cursive were four simple words: "For My Son—When He Knows."
“Mrs. Sterling, please, you need to get inside the guest house before you freeze!” Maria pleaded over the deafening roar of the storm.
Eleanor reached out with blue, shivering fingers, trying to touch the cracked photograph of her son, Julian, when he was just a boy.
“She took everything, Maria... she forced me to sign the deed transfer before she pushed me out the front door,” Eleanor wept brokenly.
Up on the second-floor balcony of the massive Connecticut estate, Victoria stood behind the floor-to-ceiling glass, sipping red wine from a crystal goblet.
Her sapphire-blue silk gown caught the dim light of the chandelier as she watched her mother-in-law struggle in the freezing rain.
Victoria didn't care about the storm, nor did she care about the thirty years of history Eleanor had built inside those brick walls.
All Victoria cared about was the forty-million-dollar land inheritance that Julian’s late father had left entirely under Eleanor’s personal legal name.
With Eleanor kicked out and declared mentally unfit by Victoria’s paid doctors, Victoria believed the full legal power of attorney belonged to her.
Maria tucked the yellowed envelope securely inside her apron pocket, wrapping her warm woolen coat around Eleanor’s trembling shoulders to protect her.
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“Come, Mrs. Sterling. I have the keys to the old garage apartment. Mr. Julian is on his way back right now,” Maria promised gently.
Eleanor looked up at the towering mansion, her gray eyes filled with profound sorrow, knowing her son was flying into a total trap.
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