Chapter 29 - The View from the Head of the Table
I walked over to the wide window, looking out over the Manhattan skyline.
The city was bathed in crisp autumn sunlight. Down below, yellow cabs crawled like ants along the avenues. For years, I had walked those streets feeling small, insignificant, and unworthy—convinced by Julian’s casual neglect and Victoria’s vicious psychological warfare that my place was on the basement floor, eating leftovers from chipped plates.
Now, I held the master deed to the city’s most prestigious architectural legacy.
I broke the wax seal on the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of prison-issue lined paper, written in the same jagged, spidery hand that had terrorized my life.
*Charlotte,* the letter began.
*Do not flatter yourself into believing you have won a moral victory. You think you survived because you are clever. You survived because George is weak and Julian is a sentimental idiot.*
*You sit at my table today. You sign documents with my company’s pens. You give charity to the servants who used to scrub my toilets. But remember this: you cannot erase the bloodline that built this town. And you cannot erase what happened at the Blackwood River in the winter of 1985.*
*Ask George why your father really abandoned his architectural practice. Ask him what was buried in the concrete beneath the north wing of the old mill before they poured the foundation.*
*You thought the 1972 patents were the only secret, little girl? The patents were just the bribe to keep your father silent about the body.*
*Enjoy your seat at the head of the table. It won't stay upright for long.*
*— Victoria*
My breath hitched in my throat.
The paper felt suddenly ice-cold in my grip.
"Walter," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
Walter looked up from packing his briefcase, noticing the sudden change in my posture. "Charlotte? What is it? What did she write?"
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"Call the excavation crew at the old mill site," I said, turning slowly around to face him, the blood draining from my face. "Tell them to halt all construction on the community center immediately."
***
