Chapter 3: A Mother's Choice
The following morning, Eleanor stood outside the glass facade of Vance Enterprises, the logistics firm Arthur ran and where Eleanor worked as senior accountant. The tall building felt less like a workplace and more like a fortress built on fear.
Inside, her desk was littered with financial statements. For months, Eleanor had noticed irregularities in the company’s charitable donations and equipment funds—small discrepancies she had previously dismissed as simple clerical errors. But looking at them now with clear eyes, she realized the truth. Arthur wasn't just controlling; he was corrupt.
Her phone buzzed. It was a text from her aunt, Victoria, the family matriarch: Eleanor, drop the charges. Arthur is the pillar of this family. If he goes down, we all lose our livelihood.
Eleanor stared at the screen. The familiar weight of guilt tried to pull her down, but then she remembered Lily cowering on the marble floor beneath the shadow of that oak board.
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She typed back a short message: The pillar was already rotten, Aunt Victoria.
She opened her drawer, pulled out a flash drive, and began copying the double-entry ledgers she had uncovered. If Arthur was going to face justice, it wouldn't just be for his violent temper—it would be for the years of deceit that had kept everyone under his thumb.
