Chapter 5: What Eleanor Did Next
She moved fast.
I had always underestimated how fast Eleanor Montgomery could move when she felt cornered.
By the time the guests had begun to drift — some toward the parking area, some toward the bar, some simply standing in clusters speaking in low urgent voices — Eleanor had disappeared inside the estate.
Ethan had taken Caleb's hand without quite seeming to realize he had done it.
Arthur was speaking quietly with two men I didn't recognize near the fountain.
My phone buzzed.
My assistant, Dana.
*Her lawyer just called our lawyer.
Cease and desist.
They're claiming the document Arthur has is a forgery.*
I typed back: *Tell Grace to expect it.
She has the chain of custody.*
Grace Okafor was my attorney.
She had been working on this for four months.
The cease and desist was not a surprise.
Eleanor telegraphed her moves — she always had.
It was one of the things that had made her so effective for so long.
Everyone around her was too intimidated to prepare.
I had not been too intimidated.
I had simply been too poor, and too alone, and too frightened.
That was five years ago.
Ethan was still crouching on the garden path.
Noah had climbed onto his knee without invitation, the way five-year-olds do, with the absolute confidence that they are welcome everywhere.
Ethan looked like a man who had been handed something he did not know how to hold but was terrified to put down.
"I need to ask you something," he said, looking up at me.
"Ask."
"Did you ever try to reach me?
Before today?"
"Once.
Three weeks after I left.
I called your direct line." I watched his face.
"Eleanor answered."
His jaw tightened.
"What did she say?"
"That you had already filed for divorce.
That you had instructed her to inform me there would be no further contact." I paused.
"The divorce papers arrived the following week.
Your signature was on them."
"I signed them," he said.
"She told me you'd asked for them.
That you wanted a clean break."
We looked at each other across five years and three small boys.
"She played both of us," he said.
"Yes."
"I should have—" He stopped.
"You should have," I said.
Not cruelly.
Just honestly.
He nodded once.
He didn't argue.
Noah patted his cheek with one small hand.
Ethan caught it and held it there.
Inside the estate, a door sl@mmed.
Dana called instead of texting this time.
I answered.
"Vivienne." Her voice was tight.
"Eleanor just had the estate security team ask Arthur to leave.
They took the envelope."
I felt the first cold thread of something move through me.
"Did he have the original?"
"He had a copy.
The original is with Grace." A pause.
"But Vivienne — she's also called someone at the city assessor's office.
I don't know what that means yet, but Grace says it's connected to the building your Chicago office is in.
Something about a zoning review."
I looked across the garden at the estate's tall windows.
Behind one of them, Eleanor Montgomery was already working.
"She's going after the company," I said.
"It looks that way."
I turned back to Ethan.
He had heard enough from my expression.
"She won't stop," he said.
It wasn't a defense of her.
It was a warning.
May you like
"I know," I said.
"Neither will I."
