Chapter 10 - ELEANOR WHITMORE
Alexander met her in a conference room.
I stayed because hotel security evidence involved her messages.
Samuel placed the emails on the table.
Eleanor read them.
“Yes. I encouraged him to move on.”
“Did you know Margaret was alive?”
“No.”
“Did you know Vanessa’s pregnancy was fake?”
“No.”
“Did you know Cynthia controlled New Dawn?”
“Yes.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“Why did you tell her to make sure I stopped asking about Margaret?”
Eleanor’s jaw tightened.
“Because you were destroying yourself.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the truth.”
She said Margaret’s disappearance nearly destroyed Alexander.
He stopped sleeping.
Missed meetings.
Fired executives.
Spent millions chasing false leads.
Eleanor believed acceptance would save him.
So when Cynthia suggested Vanessa might be good for him, Eleanor supported it.
“Did you investigate her?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Cynthia’s family had known ours for years.”
Then Lily walked in holding my hand.
Eleanor looked at her.
“That is the child?”
“My child,” I said.
Lily studied her.
Then asked:
“Did you know about the pillow?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
That was all.
Eleanor asked to speak privately. Alexander refused. “Not anymore.”
Her face changed.
Then Samuel received a call.
Police had searched Cynthia’s apartment.
They found Margaret’s old passport.
Her original wedding ring.
And a lockbox containing letters.
Every letter Margaret wrote Alexander during the first year of captivity.
Twenty-three letters. None delivered.
Alexander opened the first.
My love, they say you want me gone. I don’t believe them yet.
The second:
Please answer. I am starting to doubt myself.
The eighth:
If you truly want me dead to you, say it in your own voice.
The twenty-third:
I will stop writing now. I cannot keep begging a man who has chosen silence.
Alexander could not read the rest.
Then police found one more envelope.
Not from Margaret.
From Eleanor.
Addressed to Cynthia.
May you like
It had never been mailed.
Inside was a check for five million dollars.
