Chapter 11 - The Sister I Buried Fifteen Years Ago
My sister had been dead for fifteen years.
At least, that was what my father told me.
Eleanor Vale was nineteen when her car supposedly plunged into Lake Michigan during a winter storm.
They recovered the vehicle.
They recovered her coat.
But they never recovered her body.
My father said the lake had taken her.
I believed him.
Just as I'd believed everything else.
Now Rebecca Reed was claiming Eleanor had spent years secretly directing Dominic Russo.
I sat upright in my hospital bed.
"That's impossible."
Gabriel stood near the door.
"Arthur, investigators have located financial transactions under your sister's name."
My heart pounded.
"That doesn't mean she's alive."
"No. But they also found recent photographs."
He handed me his tablet.
A woman stood outside a medical clinic in Vermont.
Dark hair.
Pale skin.
Gray eyes identical to mine.
Eleanor.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably my sister.
My hands began trembling.
I remembered teaching her to ride a bicycle.
I remembered her stealing cookies from the kitchen.
I remembered the last argument we had before she disappeared.
She'd begged me to leave our father's organization.
I'd laughed.
Called her naive.
Told her she didn't understand the world.
Those were the last words I'd spoken to her.
Now she was alive.
And possibly trying to destroy me.
"Why?" I whispered.
Nora sat beside my bed.
"Maybe she has reasons we don't understand yet."
I looked at her.
"She helped poison me."
Nora didn't look away.
"If that's true, she needs to answer for it. But we still need to know what really happened."
I closed my eyes.
For years, I'd surrounded myself with men who agreed with everything I said.
Nora never did.
And somehow, I trusted her more because of it.
Two days later, Eleanor agreed to speak with investigators.
She appeared by secure video from an undisclosed location.
The moment her face appeared, I stopped breathing.
"Ellie?"
Her expression crumpled.
Nobody had called her that in years.
"Arthur."
My voice broke.
"You're alive."
She nodded.
"I'm alive."
"Why didn't you come home?"
Her eyes filled.
"Because Dad tried to kill me."
I stared.
She continued.
"I discovered what he'd done to Mom. When I confronted him, he arranged the accident."
My stomach tightened.
"How did you survive?"
"Evelyn helped me escape."
Nora covered her mouth.
Her grandmother had protected both of us.
Eleanor looked at me.
"I spent years trying to expose the organization. Dominic approached me claiming he wanted the same thing."
I gripped the bed rail.
"And you believed him?"
She lowered her eyes.
"He showed me documents proving he'd been stealing from the company. He told me he could bring you down without anyone getting hurt."
"Did you tell him to make me sick?"
"No."
She began crying.
"Arthur, I never authorized that."
I stared at her.
Eleanor continued.
"Three months ago, Dominic stopped answering my calls. Then he sent me a photograph of you unconscious."
My chest tightened.
"What did he want?"
"Your mother's trust documents."
I looked toward Nora.
Then back at Eleanor.
"Why?"
Eleanor swallowed.
"Because Dominic discovered the trust contains something worth more than money."
I felt cold.
"What?"
"The original ownership records of the Vale shipping empire."
She looked directly into the camera.
"And according to those documents, Arthur, you aren't the rightful owner."
I stared at her.
"Then who is?"
May you like
My sister answered softly.
"Your mother left the company to the families of the workers your father destroyed."
