Chapter 3 - Leah Recorded It
Victoria called Leah a liar.
Leah reached into her apron and removed a small recorder.
“I knew you would.”
She pressed play.
Victoria’s voice filled the foyer:
“Sign tonight, or I will tell the competency board you no longer understand what you own.”
Eleanor’s recorded voice sounded frightened.
“You cannot take people’s homes.”
Victoria replied:
“They are facilities, not homes.”
Then Leah’s voice:
“Mrs. Harrington said no.”
Victoria laughed.
“You clean her bathroom. You do not interpret her decisions.”
Ethan looked at his wife.
The recording continued:
“Leave her on the floor. She will sign once she understands you are gone.”
Silence followed.
Victoria’s confidence cracked.
“I was protecting the company.”
“From my mother?” Ethan asked.
“From her sentimentality.”
Eleanor looked at her son.
“Did you know she was selling the care centers?”
Ethan hesitated.
“I knew discussions had reopened.”
“You told me the sale was dead.”
“I thought I could negotiate protections.”
Victoria smiled coldly.
“Protections lower the price.”
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For the first time, Ethan understood that his wife had never planned to protect the residents.
She planned to make their displacement profitable.
