Chapter 17: The Warning

Elena didn't pull the cord. She backed away from the cage, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. If she disconnected the server, the feed would go black. And if the feed went black, Vane would know she had found it.

Silence was her only weapon.

She retreated up the stairs, closing the basement door softly behind her. The kitchen was still empty, the hum of the refrigerator the only sound in a house that felt increasingly like a tomb.

She walked into the library. The stag head stared down at her, its glass eye glinting in the afternoon sun. She sat at the desk, opening the ledger she had brought down from the attic earlier. She pretended to work. She wrote numbers in a column, random figures that meant nothing, while her mind raced.

He was watching. He was listening.

She couldn't call Marcus. She couldn't call the police. She couldn't even talk to Julian without wondering if he was part of the performance.

The front door opened.

"Elena?"

It was Vane. He didn't knock anymore.

She stood up, closing the ledger. "In the library, Silas."

He walked in, carrying a leather briefcase. He looked relaxed, the picture of a man who owned the room he was standing in.

"I see you're hard at work," he said, glancing at the ledger. "Excellent. The auditors will be pleased."

"I'm just organizing the receipts," she said. "Trying to make sense of Constance's system."

"Constance had a unique filing method," Vane said, setting his briefcase on the coffee table. "She believed that if she kept everything, she lost nothing. A fallacy, of course. Sometimes, keeping everything just means you're buried alive."

He walked over to the window, looking out at the overgrown garden. "I spoke to the director at The Harbor this morning. Leo is settling in well. He asked about you."

"Can I call him?"

"Not yet," Vane said, turning back to her. "Dr. Evans recommends a period of 'no contact.' To break the dependency cycle. Leo needs to learn to stand on his own two feet. Without his mother's... anxiety."

He smiled. It was a terrifying expression, devoid of warmth.

"I also brought some papers for you to sign," he said, opening his briefcase. "Standard forms for the trust disbursement. To ensure Leo's tuition is covered through the end of the year."

He laid a document on the desk. Elena looked down at it.

It wasn't a disbursement form. It was a Power of Attorney.

"This gives you control over my personal assets," she said, her voice tight. "Not just the estate."

"It simplifies things," Vane said. "With Julian so busy, and you... under so much stress. It allows me to handle the day-to-day without bothering you."

"I'm not signing it."

"Elena," Vane sighed, stepping closer. He lowered his voice, an intimate, dangerous pitch. "We have strict conduct codes for families of patients at The Harbor. If a parent is deemed... unstable... visitation rights can be revoked. Permanently."

He tapped the paper.

"Sign it. For Leo."

Elena looked at the pen he offered. It was a Montblanc, heavy and black.

She looked at the stag head. She knew the camera was rolling. She knew he was recording this coercion, probably to use it later as proof of her 'compliance.'

She took the pen.

"You really care about this family, don't you Silas?" she asked, keeping her voice steady.

"I promised Constance I would protect the legacy," he said. "At any cost."

"Even the cost of a life?"

Vane didn't blink. "Especially then."

Elena signed the paper. She didn't sign her name. She signed *E. Vance*. Her maiden name. A legal nullity.

Vane didn't check the signature. He just smiled, took the paper, and slid it back into his briefcase.

"Good girl," he said. "We wouldn't want Leo discharged because his mother became