Chapter 9 - The Midnight Gate Beggar
A torrential rainstorm battered the estate late that night,
thunder crashing violently across the dark sky as wind whipped through the towering oak trees surrounding the property.
Inside the master bedroom,
a warm,
soft fire crackled in the stone fireplace.
I sat in a velvet armchair wearing a comfortable cashmere sweater,
a cup of chamomile tea resting on the side table,
listening to the calming sound of Chopin playing softly through the built-in home speakers.
On my lap was a sleek tablet displaying the live feed from the perimeter security cameras installed at the front entrance of the estate.
At precisely eleven-forty-five,
a single figure appeared on the high-definition monitor.
It was David.
He was drenched from head to toe,
his hair plastered to his forehead,
his wet suit clinging to his shivering frame like a discarded rag.
He was standing in front of the massive wrought-iron gates,
clutching the cold metal bars with both hands,
screaming my name into the night air against the sound of the howling wind.
“Eleanor!”
his voice came through the security intercom speaker on my desk,
distorted by the storm but filled with raw,
unfiltered misery.
“Eleanor,
please!”
“I know you’re in there!”
“Please open the gate,
Eleanor!”
“I’m sorry!”
“I was wrong,
I was so wrong about everything!”
I picked up my tea cup,
took a small,
deliberate sip,
and watched him through the tablet screen as he fell to his knees in the deep mud outside the gate.
He pressed his face against the cold iron bars,
tears mixing with the rainwater pouring down his cheeks.
“It was Chloe,
Eleanor!”
David sobbed into the microphone,
his voice cracking pitifully.
“She targeted me!”
“She tricked me,
she tricked me into thinking I needed a life away from work!”
“She made me do those things with the cards,
she forced me to sign those papers!”
“I never loved her,
Eleanor!”
“I only ever loved you!”
“You’re my wife,
you’re my home,
you’re my entire life!”
I leaned forward,
tapped the screen to activate the two-way audio system,
and brought the speaker button to my lips.
“Hello,
David,”
I said softly,
my voice ringing out clearly through the loudspeaker mounted right above his head at the gate.
David gasped,
looking up at the camera with wide,
desperate eyes,
wiping mud from his chin.
“Eleanor!”
he cried,
scrambling back to his feet and grabbing the bars again.
“Thank God!”
“Please,
Eleanor,
let me come inside!”
“I’m freezing,
I have nowhere to go,
my parents are sitting in a awful motel in Queens,
and I lost my job today!”
“I know you lost your job,
David,”
I replied calmly,
watching his pathetic reflection on the digital screen.
“Marcus Vance kept me updated on every detail of your termination.”
“Eleanor,
please forgive me!”
David wept,
shaking the iron gate with all his remaining strength.
“We can rebuild!”
“We can go to marriage counseling,
we can start over,
I will do whatever you want!”
“I will work any job,
I will take care of the house,
I will do all the cooking and cleaning,
just please don’t discard me like this!”
I let out a soft,
gentle laugh that echoed through the rain-soaked night.
“Rebuild,
David?”
I asked softly.
“You didn’t just break a dish in this house;
you tried to burn the entire foundation to the ground while I was sitting inside it.”
“You wanted me to spend four years as a nursemaid for your arrogant parents while you played family in SoHo with your young mistress.”
“You wanted to use my money to buy her diamonds,
pay her rent,
and secure your future at my expense.”
“No,
Eleanor,
no!”
David shrieked,
banging his forehead against the metal bar.
“It was a mistake!”
“A mistake is taking the wrong turn on the highway,
David,”
I said,
my voice dropping into a hard,
unforgiving frost.
“What you did was a calculated,
premeditated betrayal executed over months.”
“And the most pathetic part of it all,”
I added,
“is that you weren’t even clever enough to succeed.”
“You were caught on day one.”
David collapsed back onto his knees in the thick mud,
his chest heaving as he realized that no amount of tears,
begging,
or performance would ever open those iron gates again.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
he whimpered into the mud.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“You are going to live the life you earned,
David,”
I said smoothly.
“Now get off my property before the armed security team I hired arrives to remove you for criminal trespass.”
I tapped the tablet screen,
disconnecting the audio feed,
turning off the exterior gate camera,
and setting my glass down on the table.
Outside,
the storm continued to rage,
May you like
but inside my house,
it was completely silent.
