Chapter 5: Justice and New Beginnings
The arrest was swift. Clarissa was hosting a celebratory dinner, toasting to her "new life," when the front doors were kicked open. This time, it wasn't the sound of a tragedy, but the sound of justice.
"Clarissa Montgomery, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Eleanor Van Der Woodsen," the lead officer declared.
Her face, usually so composed and elegant, crumbled. She tried to bolt toward the back exit, but Julian stood there, blocking her path. He didn't yell. He didn't throw a punch. He simply showed her the tablet displaying the footage. Her eyes widened, her knees buckled, and for the first time in her life, the woman in purple had no more lies to tell.
Rosa was released an hour later. The reunion in the foyer was tearful. Julian apologized, offering her double her salary and a position as the head of the estate, not as a maid, but as family.
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Eleanor pulled through. It took months of physical therapy, but she returned to the mansion, stronger than ever. Mia was celebrated as the hero who had held the truth inside, and she was given a room of her own—the one Clarissa had tried to claim.
As the sun set over the estate, the Van Der Woodsen family sat on the porch, the air clear and the house filled with laughter for the first time in years. The trap had been sprung, but the right people had escaped, and the shadows that had threatened to consume them were finally, definitively, gone.
