Chapter 7 - THE GULF COAST SANCTUARY
By nightfall, I was ninety miles further south, checking into a quiet, sun-bleached motel on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
The air here smelled of salt spray, marsh grass, and roasting pine needles. The Atlantic stretched out endlessly before my hotel balcony, dark and churning under a crescent moon.
I sat on the white wicker chair outside my room, wrapped in a woolen shawl, watching the lighthouse beam sweep steadily across the dark water.
My lawyer, Marcus Holloway—a brilliant, silver-haired bulldog of a man whom Edward had trusted implicitly—called me on my burner phone at 9:00 PM sharp.
“Eleanor,” Marcus said without preamble. “Your son is tearing his hair out across three different states.”
“He found me in Savannah, Marcus,” I said quietly. “Or at least, he guessed where I went.”
“Well, he won't guess Jekyll Island,” Marcus replied, his voice reassuring. “And even if he did, it wouldn't matter. The trust documents are fully executed, the title on the Virginia house has been successfully transferred to an independent holding LLC, and your personal accounts are completely invisible to any subpoena or creditor claim.”
“And Fernanda?” I asked.
Marcus let out a dry, humorless chuckle. “From what my contacts in commercial litigation tell me, Fernanda’s creditors didn't wait for her to conjure three hundred thousand dollars. Her luxury SUV was repossessed yesterday morning outside her country club. Her designer accounts have been frozen, and she and the kids have temporarily moved in with her parents in Atlanta.”
I closed my eyes, feeling a heavy weight lift off my shoulders—not a weight of guilt, but the crushing burden of other people’s consequences.
“And Richard?”
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“He’s refusing to file for bankruptcy, trying to salvage his pride and his agency,” Marcus said. “He’s working twenty-hour days, selling off his personal assets, and trying to negotiate settlement terms with loan sharks who don't negotiate. He's learning the hard way, Eleanor. The absolute hardest way possible.”
“Good,” I said softly. “Pain is a very effective teacher when words fail.”
