Chapter 14 - Barbara’s Confession
We were caught before reaching the stairwell.
Thomas’s men separated Ethan from me.
They took us to the old boardroom.
Samuel sat at one end.
Barbara sat at the other.
Thomas stood beside the windows.
“You continue making this unnecessarily dramatic.”
I looked at Barbara.
She could barely meet my eyes.
For years, this woman had criticized my clothes.
My cooking.
My marriage.
My inability to give her grandchildren quickly enough.
Now she looked small.
Thomas placed the authorization device on the table.
“Sign.”
“No.”
He nodded toward Ethan.
One of his men pressed Ethan against the wall.
Thomas said, “I don’t need to hurt you, Claire.”
“I only need to hurt people you refuse to abandon.”
Barbara suddenly shouted.
“Stop!”
Thomas looked irritated.
Barbara faced me.
“I transferred the money.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“The money missing from your accounts.”
“I did it.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Not for myself.”
Thomas’s expression sharpened.
“Barbara.”
She ignored him.
“I was building an escape fund.”
“For whom?”
“For Ethan.”
Ethan stared at his mother.
She began crying.
Real tears.
Perhaps the first I had ever seen.
“I knew Thomas was alive.”
“I knew what he planned.”
“I thought if I could keep you dependent, Claire, I could control when the authorization happened.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You abused me to protect me?”
“No.”
Barbara shook her head.
“I abused you because I was angry.”
The honesty shocked me.
“I blamed you.”
“For what?”
“For making Ethan love something more than he feared us.”
Ethan looked away.
Barbara continued.
“I told myself cruelty would keep you weak.”
“That if you stayed weak, Thomas would underestimate you.”
“But after a while…”
She closed her eyes.
“I became the thing I said I was fighting.”
There it was.
Not redemption.
Responsibility.
Barbara had helped build my prison even if she later feared the architect.
Thomas grabbed her chair.
“Enough.”
Samuel suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned toward him.
Thomas frowned.
“What?”
Samuel looked at me.
“Your father knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Barbara would eventually turn on Thomas.”
Thomas stepped toward him.
Samuel continued.
“That’s why he gave her a fake route into the trust.”
Barbara stared.
“What fake route?”
Samuel smiled through his bruises.
“The guardianship.”
Thomas froze.
I understood.
My father had anticipated Barbara’s attempt.
The court ruling declaring me competent had not helped Thomas.
It had destroyed his backup plan.
Samuel laughed again.
“You spent years chasing a clause Jonathan wrote specifically for you.”
Thomas struck him.
Ethan lunged forward.
Chaos erupted.
Barbara kicked the authorization device off the table.
I grabbed it.
Ethan broke free.
Samuel slammed into one guard.
I ran toward the hidden passage.
Thomas shouted behind me.
“Claire!”
Then a gunshot cracked.
I turned.
Barbara fell.
Ethan screamed.
Thomas stood holding the gun.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Then Barbara looked at her son.
Blood spread across her shoulder, but she was conscious.
She whispered, “Go.”
Ethan hesitated.
I grabbed his hand.
May you like
And we ran.
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