Chapter 6 - The Shattered Mirror
The rain had started to fall in heavy, wind-driven sheets by the time we reached the gatehouse.
The headlights of Eleanor’s white Mercedes SUV illuminated the wrought-iron gates of the estate, casting long, fractured shadows across the wet tarmac. The front bumper of the vehicle was crumpled against the reinforced steel bollard that had automatically risen from the driveway when she failed to stop.
Beside the car, drenched in the downpour, Eleanor Vance was screaming at Donald and two other private security officers who stood calmly with their hands resting on their utility belts.
She had stripped off her soaked lilac jacket, wearing only a sleeveless silk blouse that clung to her chest, her expensive blonde blowout plastered to her skull like wet straw. She looked wild, unhinged, completely stripped of the icy, manicured control she had wielded like a weapon my entire childhood.
Behind her, sitting in the passenger seat of the idling SUV, was Blythe.
Blythe hadn't changed out of her wedding dress. The silk was smeared with mud around the hem, her cathedral veil crumpled on the floorboards behind her. She sat staring forward through the rain-streaked windshield with dull, empty eyes, looking like a mannequin discarded in an alley.
“Open this gate!” Eleanor shrieked as Reid and I stepped out from beneath the covered portico of the gatehouse, shielded by an umbrella held by an aide. “Open it, you rent-a-cop bastards! My daughter is in there! Willa! Willa, you get out here right now!”
Donald stepped forward, his voice completely level. “Ma'am, you have damaged private property. The police have been dispatched. Step away from the vehicle.”
“I don't care about the police!” Eleanor lunged toward the iron bars, her hands gripping the cold metal, her manicured nails digging into the black enamel.
Then she saw me standing behind Reid.
“Willa!” Her voice shifted in an instant from screaming rage to an agonizing, theatrical sob that sounded so fake it made my teeth ache. “Willa, darling! Thank God! Tell these men to let us in! Look what they’ve done to your sister! Look at Blythe!”
She pointed a trembling hand toward the car.
“She’s in shock, Willa! The doctors say she might have a nervous breakdown! The wedding... the wedding was a mistake, we know that now! Reid wasn't right for her anyway! But you—you can fix this, sweetheart!”
I walked slowly toward the gate until I was standing three feet from where Eleanor clutched the bars. The rain was drumming loudly against Reid’s umbrella above my head, but the space between my mother and me felt completely insulated from the sound.
“Fix what, Eleanor?” I asked.
She flinched slightly at the use of her first name, but her desperation was too great for her usual reprimands.
“The patents, darling!” Eleanor rushed out, her words tumbling over each other in a frantic, wet spray. “The Sterling lawyers are freezing your father’s accounts! They’re talking about an indictment! They say Richard could go to federal prison for securities fraud! You have to tell them it was all a family misunderstanding! Tell them you gave Blythe permission to handle the licensing! Tell them you signed off on the transfer!”
I looked through the iron bars at this woman.
I remembered being seven years old, running into the kitchen with a scraped knee, only for her to tell me not to cry because it made my face look puffy and unattractive.
I remembered being sixteen, trying on prom dresses in a department store dressing room, listening to her tell the saleswoman behind the curtain, *“We need something with dark colors and very little shape. Willa doesn't have her sister’s waistline, and we don't want to draw attention to her shoulders.”*
I remembered the graduation party beneath the banner. *Beauty skipped her.*
“You want me to lie to the federal government?” I asked softly. “To commit perjury so Blythe can keep the money she stole from me?”
“It wasn't stealing!” Eleanor cried, her voice cracking into a high whine. “We’re a family! What’s yours is hers! We raised you! We gave you a roof over your head, food on your table! If it weren't for us, you’d be nothing! You owe this family your loyalty, Willa! Blythe was going to share the money with you anyway—she told me she was going to buy you a lovely little house in Minneapolis!”
A cold, bitter laugh escaped my throat before I could stop it.
“A lovely little house?” I asked. “Blythe told Reid I was dead, Eleanor. She told the man she was marrying that I died of an overdose in a flophouse so she wouldn't have to explain why my name was on the laboratory ledgers.”
Eleanor froze. Her eyes darted toward the Mercedes, then back to me, the lie dying on her lips.
“She... she was confused,” Eleanor whispered, though even she knew how pathetic it sounded. “She was trying to protect the deal. She was doing it for all of us! Richard owes three million dollars to private creditors, Willa! If this deal doesn't close on Monday, they will take the house! They will take everything!”
“Then they will take everything,” I said.
Eleanor stared at me as if I had spoken in an ancient, dead language. Her mouth opened, then snapped shut, her aristocratic composure finally shattering into pure, unadulterated venom.
“You ungrateful, disgusting little monster,” Eleanor hissed, her face pressing against the iron bars until the metal dug into her skin. “You think because you put some letters after your name that you’re better than us? You’re still that same ugly, pathetic little girl who used to cry in the bathroom because nobody asked her to dance! You will always be that! No man will ever want you! Reid Sterling is using you to save his company’s stock, and when he’s done, he will throw you away like garbage, just like we did!”
Behind me, Reid stepped forward.
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't shout. But when he spoke, the authority in his tone was so absolute that Eleanor actually recoiled from the gate.
“Donald,” Reid said calmly.
“Yes, Mr. Sterling?”
“The Madison police are entering the lower drive right now. File formal charges for aggravated trespass, reckless endangerment with a motor vehicle, and harassment.”
Reid looked down at Eleanor Vance with an expression of cold, unyielding disgust.
“And inform the county prosecutor that Sterling Bioscience will be providing the legal team for Dr. Vance to ensure the maximum allowable penalty under state law.”
Reid turned to me, offering his arm.
May you like
“Come inside, Willa. It’s cold out here.”
***