Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16 — THE MATRIX OF LIES
"Explain yourself!" Alexander barked, trying to stand but falling back against the cushions, his teeth chattering from shock and blood loss. "Mother, tell me you didn't lock my sister away!"
Eleanor closed her eyes for a brief second, the weight of a decade’s worth of secrets pressing down on her shoulders.
"Eight years ago, Arthur didn't die in that plane crash," Eleanor began, her voice steady but hollow. "He faked it because the international syndicate he was working with—the Vanguard Group—was about to execute him for losing a shipment of black-market antiquities. He came to me in the middle of the night, bleeding, just like you are now, Alexander."
She looked at Claire, her eyes begging for understanding.
"He told me that if I didn't give him access to the foundation's shipping lanes, he would slaughter every single one of us."
"Then, Claire found the records. She was going to go to the police."
"If she had gone to the police, Arthur would have killed her before she reached the courthouse."
"So you put me in an asylum?" Claire hissed, tears streaming down her face. "You let me rot under heavy sedatives for eight years?!"
"I intercepted Arthur’s men," Eleanor revealed, her voice rising with a rare flash of passion. "Arthur wanted you buried in a concrete grave, Claire! I cut a deal with Richard Lane. We used the foundation money to pay off Dr. Joshua at Haven Ridge. It was the only facility secure enough to keep Arthur’s assassins out. I locked you away to keep you behind bulletproof glass until I could find a way to destroy Arthur’s financial backers."
Lily walked over, her small hand reaching out to touch Eleanor’s sleeve. "So you weren't trying to hurt Mommy?"
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Eleanor dropped to her knees, looking into Lily’s eyes. "I have spent every night of my life living in a house of ghosts, Lily. I let the world think my daughter hated me, let my son think his sister was dead, all to keep the monsters from looking too closely at you."
She stood back up, her face hardening into ice once more. "But the Vanguard Group just called. They think they’ve won. They think I’m broken. They don't know that the encryption on that drive isn't biometric to me. It’s biometric to Lily."
