Chapter 9: The Mother's Plea
Chapter 9: The Mother's Plea
They returned to the hotel late in the afternoon. Liam had arranged for Eleanor to be brought up to a private meeting room down the hall from their suite, ensuring she couldn't ambush Maya in her own space.
Maya walked into the room alone. Liam stayed right outside the door, giving her a reassuring nod before it clicked shut.
Eleanor looked terrible. The polished, terrifying matriarch of New York high society was completely gone. She wore a simple trench coat, her hair pulled back haphazardly, her eyes swollen and bruised with exhaustion. When Maya entered, Eleanor stood up instantly, her hands trembling.
"Thank you," Eleanor whispered. "Thank you for seeing me."
"I'm only here because we need your help," Maya said coldly, crossing her arms to protect herself from the desperate warmth radiating from the older woman. "We are filing a lawsuit against Robert. We need you to take a DNA test, and we need you to testify about what he did twenty-five years ago."
Eleanor nodded quickly, tears instantly spilling over. "Yes. Anything. I will sign whatever you want. I will give you my blood, my testimony, everything."
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small, velvet jewelry box. She slid it across the mahogany conference table.
"I know I can't undo how I treated you," Eleanor's voice broke. "I was a monster. Robert... Robert convinced me you were a gold digger. He fed me lies about you for a year, Maya. He hired investigators to fabricate stories about you. He knew. He knew who you were, and he wanted to destroy you before you could marry Liam and get close to the family. He manipulated my grief and my protective nature to turn me into his attack dog."
Maya stared at the box. She stepped forward and popped it open.
Inside sat a tiny, silver locket with a broken clasp. It was identical to the one her adoptive mother had kept in a fireproof safe in Ohio.
"You wore it when you were born," Eleanor wept quietly. "I had the jeweler make two. One for me, and one for you. I kept this one hidden from Robert for twenty-five years."
Maya traced the delicate silver metal. The sheer cruelty of Robert's long game was sickening. He had pitted a mother against her own daughter to protect his stolen empire.
May you like
"I'll take the DNA test," Eleanor said, stepping slightly closer, though she kept a respectful distance. "But Maya, please... tell me about your life. Were they kind to you? Did they love you?"
"They are my parents," Maya said, her voice softening just a fraction. "They loved me very much. More than Robert ever loved Liam."
