“I’m so sorry, Eleanor,” I said. “I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t, dear,” she said, her voice raspy. “Nathan is… he has his father’s temper. He wanted to keep the family secrets buried forever.”

“Why did he keep you in the house?” I asked.

“Because he was afraid of what I would say if I went to a real facility,” she said, a tear slipping down her wrinkled cheek. “I knew what he did to his father. It wasn’t me who poisoned him, Claire. It was Nathan. He was only seventeen.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“The police thought it was me because of my confusion,” Eleanor whispered. “Nathan made sure everyone thought I was crazy. He kept me drugged for years to protect himself.”

I squeezed her hand, unable to speak.

“You saved me,” she said. “And you saved Lily.”

I stayed with her until she fell asleep.

The legal process that followed was exhausting.

Nathan’s defense team tried to claim he was simply caring for his sick mother under extreme stress.