Chapter 3: The Obsession of Purity
As the legal proceedings began, the extent of Eleanor’s madness unraveled. Investigators found a hidden room in the basement of the estate, a place she called the "Archive." It was filled with files on every single person who had ever entered the Sterling orbit.
Eleanor suffered from a distorted, hereditary narcissism. She truly believed that she was the curator of a superior genetic line. If a spouse didn't meet her rigorous, arbitrary standards of "purity"—wealth, status, lineage—they were considered an invasive species to be eradicated.
She had kept logs. Handwritten notes detailing the dosages she had administered to Sarah, meticulously tracking the decline of her health. She viewed it not as murder, but as gardening—pulling a weed to ensure the flower could grow.
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"She was so proud of it," the lead investigator told Liam during a private briefing. "She viewed the poisoning as a service to the family. She thought she was doing you a favor by protecting you from a 'lesser' heir."
The horror of it didn't just shock the police; it destroyed the foundation of the Sterling family's social standing. The "purity" she had fought so hard to preserve was exposed as the rot that had been poisoning the family from within for generations.
