Chapter 13 - A Knock in the Rain
Two weeks before the grand opening, a sodden, unseasonal rain battered the town. Late on a Thursday night, someone knocked softly on the back door of Elena’s apartment.
Elena opened it cautiously, leaving the chain engaged. Standing on the exterior landing, drenched and shivering, was Clara, the Sterling manor’s thirty-year head cook. Her white apron was shoved into a plastic grocery bag, her coat soaked through at the shoulders.
"Clara?" Elena unhooked the chain immediately, pulling the older woman inside and wrapping a woolen blanket around her shoulders. "What happened? Did something happen to Victoria?"
Clara sat by the small cast-iron radiator, her breath wheezing slightly. "Mr. Sterling died three days ago in Zurich. Heart attack in a hotel room. When the will was read this morning, everything—the estate, the trust, the accounts—it was all left to a corporate conservatorship until all debts were settled. He had debts nobody knew about, Elena. Huge ones."
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Elena handed her a steaming mug of black tea. "And Victoria?"
"She fired the whole staff at noon," Clara said, tears cutting through the wrinkles on her cheeks. "She locked the front gates. She’s sitting in that dark dining room all by herself. No heat, no electricity. The power company cut the line yesterday morning."
