A Mother's Confession
Chapter 13 - A Mother's Confession
Eleanor Mercer had spent nine years pretending Luke's death was an accident.
She had spent three years pretending Jonathan was a good husband.
Now, sitting across from Caleb, she finally broke.
“I knew Mara was pregnant.”
Caleb stood so quickly his chair fell backward.
“You knew?”
Eleanor cried.
“Your father told me.”
“You let her disappear?”
“I begged him to leave her alone.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Eleanor covered her face.
Caleb had never spoken to his mother with hatred.
Until that moment.
“You knew I spent years thinking Mara abandoned me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Everyone was afraid.”
Caleb's voice broke.
“And a child paid for it.”
Eleanor admitted Jonathan had forced her to sign a statement claiming Luke never knew about the pregnancy.
Richard planned to use it against Eli.
“Why are you testifying for him?”
“I'm not.”
She pulled the subpoena from her purse.
“I came to tell you the truth first.”
Then Eleanor gave Caleb something unexpected.
A handwritten letter.
Luke had written it to Jonathan.
In it, Luke mentioned “my child.”
He knew.
The letter destroyed Richard's legal argument.
But it also contained a sentence Caleb could barely read.
“If anything happens to me, Caleb will do what I couldn't. He'll choose people over the company.”
Caleb sat silently.
For most of his life, he had tried to become the businessman his father respected.
May you like
Only now did he understand.
Luke had hoped he would become someone entirely different.
