Chapter 3 - The Ghost Of Long Island
The mention of the past hung heavily in the air between them, suffocating and undeniable. Eleanor pressed a hand against her chest, feeling the frantic, erratic rhythm of her heart. Twenty years ago, on a windy cliffside in Long Island, a young woman had been pushed out of the inner circle of high society with a ruined reputation and a forged signature that stripped her of her rightful inheritance. Eleanor had thought that chapter of her life was buried deep beneath concrete and time, locked away by Arthur’s money and silence. But here it was, standing on the lawn in a blue shirt and beige cardigan, holding an envelope that could dismantle every single brick of Eleanor’s empire.
“You signed an NDA,” Eleanor hissed, panic clawing at her throat. “You took the settlement and you vanished.”
“I took what your lawyers forced me to take while you held my infant daughter over my head,” Clara replied, her voice shaking slightly with long-suppressed fury. “You threatened to have her placed in the foster system before the birth certificate even dried. What choice did I have?”
“You survived,” Eleanor retorted defensively, though her eyes kept darting back to the envelope. “You lived a comfortable life elsewhere. Why come back now? Why destroy my party, my home, everything?”
“Because Arthur found me three months before he died,” Clara said, pulling a folded sheet of heavy parchment from the envelope. “He wasn't the monster you made him out to be in the end, Eleanor. He was drowning in guilt. And he left everything back to its rightful lineage—starting with the deed to this very estate.”
Eleanor let out a sharp, breathless laugh of disbelief.
“The deed is in my name! My name is registered with the county clerk!”
“Your name is on a fraudulent title,” Clara corrected calmly, unfolding the paper so the golden seal of the state of New York gleamed in the firelight. “Arthur filed the correction petition two days before his stroke. It becomes public record at midnight tonight.”
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Eleanor looked at her watch. It was 11:45 PM. Fifteen minutes.
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