Chapter 3: Secrets of the Dark
The crowd gasped. The reporters lowered their microphones, their eyes glued to the screens.
The footage showed Evelyn dragging a heavy basket of wet linens, throwing them at Eleanor's feet. It showed Evelyn pulling a blanket away from the freezing elderly woman, mocking her, and saying, "If you tell Julian, I will make sure he puts you in the cheapest, most abusive nursing home I can find. He believes me, not you."
The footage changed to another clip—Evelyn slapping a bowl of soup out of Eleanor's hands because it was "too loud."
The silence that fell over the crowd was absolute. Evelyn’s face drained of all color. Her lawyer slowly lowered his briefcase, looked at her with utter revulsion, and muttered, "You're on your own," before walking away into the crowd.
"You wanted a public trial, Evelyn," Julian said, his voice echoing with devastating authority. "You forgot that I own the security firm that installed the hidden cameras in this house for my mother's safety years ago—the ones you thought were disabled. The world now knows exactly what kind of monster you are."
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The reporters turned on Evelyn like a pack of wolves. Flashbulbs blinded her as they shouted questions, no longer portraying her as a victim, but as a cruel tormentor. She stumbled backward, tripping over her own shoes, falling into the dirt just as Eleanor had been forced to do.
But the drama wasn't over. As Julian turned back into the house, a panicked call came from the hospital. The stress of the public exposure and the years of neglect had caught up with Eleanor. She had collapsed.
