Chapter 40 - The Turn of the Blade
Eleanor backed away from the desk, her eyes darting toward the private elevator that led down to the yacht's subterranean tender bay. "You think you can outplay me? I gave you life, Claire! Everything you are, every ruthless instinct you possess, came from me!"
"No," I said, stepping around the table, cutting off her path to the elevator. "I got my ruthlessness from watching you abandon me. But my strength? My loyalty? That came from protecting what you tried to destroy."
The glass doors slid open with a hiss. Henry stepped into the salon, flanked by two armed operatives in tactical black. He wasn't the broken man who had hidden in the Arctic cave anymore. He walked with the heavy, unyielding cadence of a patriarch reclaiming his house.
"Hello, Eleanor," Henry said quietly.
Eleanor froze, her breathing shallow, staring at the husband she had betrayed, robbed, and framed. "Henry... you pathetic old fool. You think she did this for you? She’s a monster. She just liquidated the entire Vance legacy on the open exchange!"
"She saved her sister," Henry replied, his voice devoid of any warmth. "Something you never would have understood. The money was never the legacy, Eleanor. The family was."
Outside on the deck, Christian walked Julian into the salon by his collar, tossing him onto the floor like a sack of trash. Julian landed at Eleanor's feet, clutching her pristine cream slacks.
"Eleanor! Tell them!" Julian wept, snot and tears dripping onto the Persian carpet. "Tell them I was just following your instructions! You said Claire was weak! You said we would take everything and split the offshore accounts! Tell them I’m innocent!"
Eleanor looked down at Julian with utter disgust, lifting her heel and kicking him squarely in the chest. "Get off me, you worthless little parasite."
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Julian collapsed backward, clutching his ribs, staring at her in horror as the realization finally washed over him: he had betrayed his wife, destroyed his family, and sold his soul for a woman who viewed him as less than a stray dog.
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