Chapter 5
The threats began two days later.
Someone broke into the hotel restaurant where I’d worked and destroyed my locker.
Then Eleanor received a note: Send her away or lose everything.
She moved me into the house full-time. Had security installed. Guards at every door.
But I was afraid—not for myself, but for her.
"He’s been planning this for twenty years," I told her. "He knows things. He has people."
"Let him come," Eleanor said. "I have you back. Nothing else matters."
That night, I found her in the study, staring at an old will.
"He thinks if something happens to me, everything passes to him," she said. "But he forgot one thing."
She looked up at me.
"You are my heir, Stella. Everything is yours. And I will change the documents tomorrow. So even if he tries... he will have nothing."
The next morning, we drove to the lawyer’s office.
Halfway there, a black truck swerved directly into our path.
The driver slammed on the brakes. Tires screeched. The car spun off the road and came to a halt, tilted in the grass.
I was bruised and shaken—but Eleanor was hurt.
"Mom!" I cried, using the name I’d just begun to call her.
She opened her eyes slowly.
"I’m here," she whispered. "Stay down."
May you like
The truck had sped away. But I saw the driver’s face for just a moment.
My uncle.
