Chapter 10 - The Last Call
"You all need to pack your bags," Eleanor said, her voice cutting through the heavy silence like a knife. She didn't raise her voice, but every word carried the absolute finality of a judge passing sentence. "The deputies have given us thirty minutes to clear the premises before the county locks down the property pending the bank's formal foreclosure auction."
Aunt Linda gasped, her hands flying to her cheeks. "Thirty minutes? Eleanor, be reasonable! My winter coat is in the guest bedroom upstairs, and my luggage is in the trunk of Arthur’s car, which is currently blocked in by your husband’s abandoned sedan!"
"Then I suggest you walk to the driveway and move the sedan," Eleanor replied coldly, gesturing toward the front hallway. "Because once those thirty minutes are up, the security codes will be reset, and the smart locks will reject any key you possess."
Thomas slowly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot and filled with a bitter, simmering rage. He pushed himself off the sideboard and staggered toward Eleanor, stopping just a foot away from her. The green Christmas sweater looked pathetic on his slumped frame.
"You planned this from the very beginning, didn't you?" Thomas spat out, his voice shaking with suppressed fury. "You married David just to get your hands on this estate. You watched us struggle, you watched Patricia make mistakes, and you waited patiently for the exact right moment to pull the rug out from under our entire family so you could walk away with millions."
Eleanor didn't back down an inch. She looked straight into his bloodshot eyes, her expression completely devoid of fear or remorse.
"If I wanted millions, Thomas, I would have married someone wealthy instead of spending twelve years supporting a lazy, ungrateful architect who ran away the second things got difficult," Eleanor said evenly. "Every single dollar tied up in this house was earned by my grandfather and protected by my own independent savings. Your sister stole from your mother, you lived off fraudulent investments, and David was a coward who looked the other way. Don't you dare stand there and try to make yourself the victim of my survival."
Thomas raised his hand as if he were going to strike her, his fingers curling into a tight fist.
Before the motion could even begin, Sergeant Miller stepped smoothly between them, his hand resting casually on the butt of his sidearm. "I wouldn't advise that, sir. Assaulting a witness in an ongoing federal investigation adds a very unpleasant mandatory minimum to your current legal troubles."
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Thomas dropped his hand slowly, his chest heaving with impotent rage. He glared at Eleanor one last time before turning on his heel and storming out of the dining room toward the stairs.
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