Chapter 2 - The Missing Face
The photograph had been taken at Thanksgiving forty-one years earlier.
Arthur Harrington stood at the head of the same table.
A younger Eleanor sat beside him.
Relatives smiled beneath the same chandelier.
But on the left side, someone had been removed with a blade.
Only the edge of a black-and-white uniform remained.
Leah stared at it.
“Who was there?”
Eleanor looked toward Victoria.
“The first woman this family erased from a Thanksgiving picture.”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“This has nothing to do with tonight.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“You locked my mother away while the family photographer was waiting.”
“I was preventing a scene.”
“What scene?”
Victoria glanced toward Eleanor.
“She planned to make an announcement.”
Eleanor’s hand tightened around the frame.
The annual Harrington Thanksgiving photograph was more than a tradition.
Every year, the family trust archived the image with minutes from its private holiday meeting. The person seated at the head of the table was recorded as the active steward of Harrington House.
If Eleanor appeared absent and relatives signed that she was unable to attend, temporary authority passed to the family council.
Victoria chaired that council.
Ethan looked at the unsigned declaration beside his plate.
It stated that Eleanor had become too confused to participate in family affairs.
“You expected us to sign this after the photograph?”
Victoria answered calmly:
“Your mother’s condition has declined.”
Eleanor looked at her son.
“I was well enough to refuse her.”
Leah opened the side-room drawer.
Inside were Eleanor’s reading glasses, phone and the silver bell she used when she needed assistance.
Victoria had removed every way she could call for help.
May you like
Then Leah found another document.
It scheduled the sale of the Harrington employee residences for the following morning.
