Chapter 11: The Banishment from Bellevue
Maximilian raised his hand, signaling the head butler who had been standing silently in the shadows of the dining room doorway, watching the entire elite structure collapse.
"Thomas," Maximilian commanded, not an ounce of hesitation in his tone. "Go upstairs to my wife's chambers. Pack exactly one suitcase of her clothing. Do not include a single piece of Bellevue jewelry, nor any item purchased with my family's capital."
"Maximilian, no!" Eleanor shrieked, dropping to her knees, her expensive emerald dress dragging in the very dust she had forced Clara to clean. "You cannot throw me out like a dog!"
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"You are leaving," Maximilian stated, looking down at her one final time, his voice completely dead to her despair. "Today. Within the hour."
He turned away, completely ignoring her frantic screams as the security guards stepped forward into the hallway to escort her toward the iron gates of the estate. Eleanor was led away, her heavy silk dress trailing behind her, a broken, disgraced outcast stripped of the power she had used as a weapon for so many years. The heavy mahogany front doors of the Bellevue Estate slammed shut behind her, the sound echoing through the house like a definitive period at the end of a dark chapter.
