Chapter 11 - THE CHOICE SEBASTIAN MADE TOO LATE
Eleanor pulled Theodore against her.
Sebastian stopped several yards away.
“No guards?”
“You said you would cut him if you saw police.”
“You finally listened.”
“I learned listening and obeying are different.”
Eleanor tightened the knife.
“Give me the server authorization.”
“I surrendered my access.”
Her expression broke.
“You gave strangers control of the company?”
“I gave independent counsel control until the investigation ends.”
“You stupid boy.”
“I am thirty-four.”
“You remain a boy every time you choose weakness.”
Sebastian looked at Theodore.
Then at the blood beneath his jaw.
“Mother, you killed Father.”
“He would have destroyed us.”
“You tried to kill Rosalie.”
“She was going to expose us.”
“You are threatening Theodore.”
“He has always been unstable.”
Theodore laughed despite the knife.
“That excuse worked better before I found a living woman inside her coffin.”
Eleanor struck him across the face.
Sebastian moved one step closer.
She raised the knife.
He stopped.
“What do you want?”
“The original Bellglass drive.”
“Mercer gave it to police.”
“You made copies.”
“Rosalie did.”
“Bring her here.”
“No.”
Eleanor’s voice rose.
“Everything I did was for this family.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“No.”
“You did it for the power to decide which people counted.”
Theodore shifted his foot.
The mallet rested against the leg of his chair.
He hooked the handle with his shoe.
Eleanor did not notice.
Sebastian continued speaking.
“You taught me reputation was safety.”
“You taught me questions were betrayal.”
“You taught me that people beneath our name should be grateful for whatever we gave them.”
“I believed you.”
“That is my guilt.”
“But I do not belong to you anymore.”
Theodore lifted the mallet between his shoes and kicked it upward.
Sebastian caught it.
Eleanor turned instinctively.
Theodore drove the chair backward into her knees.
The knife slipped.
Sebastian struck the blade from her hand with the rubber head.
Police entered through the east doors.
Eleanor ran toward the conservatory control panel.
She pressed the fire-suppression override.
Nothing happened.
Then she broke the emergency gas valve.
A sharp hiss filled the room.
Theodore smelled fuel.
Eleanor held a lighter.
“If the Vale name ends, it ends here.”
May you like
She ignited it.
Flame raced along the floor.
