Page 205 of Broken Destiny

The sharp confidence that had once defined her seemed completely gone. Her shoulders sagged slightly, and her hands remained tightly clasped together on the table as though she were trying to hold herself together through sheer force.

She looked smaller somehow.

Frailer.

Like guilt had slowly hollowed her out from the inside.

I sat across from her and remained silent.

Caleb had told me that no one in the family had spoken to her since the truth came out.

She was alone.

“I would like to start by saying I am sorry,” she said quietly, her voice trembling. “For everything I did to you and Caleb.”

Her eyes filled instantly.

“I hurt both of you. I hurt our entire family.” She swallowed hard. “There is no excuse for what I did.”

I studied her silently.

She had lost weight. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and the woman who once carried herself with effortless authority now looked exhausted.

Broken.

“You saved my life,” she whispered. “Even after everything I did to you… you still saved me.”

Her chin dropped to her chest.

“And you never told Caleb.”

I remained quiet.

“I spent years convincing myself I was protecting my family,” Eleanor said hoarsely. “Protecting the company. Protecting Caleb.”

Her breathing became uneven.

“You came into his life, and everything changed so quickly. You were different from anyone he had ever brought home before.”

She swallowed hard.

“Tatiana understood our world. Our expectations. Everything with her felt familiar and safe. But with you…” Her voice faltered. “I saw uncertainty. Scandal. Risk.”

Her eyes filled again.

“And instead of trying to know you, I judged you immediately.”

The words hurt.

Not because it surprised me.

Deep down, I think part of me had always known.

I had seen it in Eleanor’s eyes from the very beginning—the quiet disapproval, the careful politeness, the subtle distance.

I simply had not realized how deeply those judgments had shaped everything that followed.

“When I discovered through the DNA results that you were Carlos’s daughter, I panicked. I thought you might expose what happened. I thought you might use that connection against us.”