Chapter 11 - MARGARET'S CONFESSION
I went inside wearing a wire.
Police hated the plan.
James hated it more.
I did not care.
Evan was seven.
No child was going to pay for the sins of adults while I stood outside discussing procedure.
The mansion smelled like dust and old wood.
Margaret waited in the library.
Evan sat on a sofa.
He looked frightened but unharmed.
The syringe rested on the table.
“What is that?”
I asked.
“A sedative.”
“For a child?”
“For emergencies.”
“You kidnapped him.”
Margaret rolled her eyes.
“Claire stole him first.”
“He is Claire’s son.”
“He is biologically mine.”
I stared at her.
“So is Lily.”
Her face softened at Lily’s name.
“I never meant for you to keep her this long.”
My hands curled.
“You put her inside my body.”
“Arthur did.”
“Because you ordered him to.”
Margaret did not deny it.
“Why me?”
“That was Charles’s mistake.”
“What?”
“He liked you.”
I almost laughed.
“You violated me because your husband liked me?”
“He trusted you.”
Margaret walked toward the fireplace.
“He knew James was weak.”
“James was your son.”
“No.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
Margaret turned.
“James was never my biological child.”
The room seemed to shift.
“He was adopted privately when he was three days old.”
“Does James know?”
“No.”
My heart pounded against the wire beneath my dress.
“Charles knew?”
“Of course.”
“Then why create a biological bloodline trust?”
Margaret’s face hardened.
“To humiliate me.”
She finally began telling the truth.
Charles had discovered years earlier that Margaret secretly sold company information to competitors.
He planned to divorce her.
Before he died, he placed almost half of Whitmore Holdings beyond her permanent control.
If no biological child of theirs ever existed, those shares would eventually pass to a charitable foundation.
Margaret could not tolerate that.
“You wanted the money.”
“I wanted what was mine.”
“So you had Claire carry an embryo.”
“Yes.”
“When she disappeared, you used me.”
Margaret looked almost offended.
“I gave you a child when your own embryos failed.”
“You stole my right to choose.”
“You got Lily.”
The calmness in her voice enraged me more than shouting could have.
“You think that excuses everything.”
“You love her.”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps you should thank me.”
My body moved before my mind did.
But I stopped myself.
This was what Margaret wanted.
Another attack.
Another photograph.
Another reason to call me unstable.
I looked at Evan.
“Why take him now?”
“Because Lily complicated things.”
“How?”
“Claire’s child was born first.”
“And if he is proven to be Charles’s biological son, he gets the trust.”
Margaret smiled.
“Exactly.”
“So this is about choosing which child makes you richer.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“It is about correcting Charles’s insult.”
A police siren sounded far away.
Margaret looked toward the window.
Then she smiled.
“You’re wearing a wire.”
My blood froze.
She reached beneath the library table.
A red light turned on.
A signal jammer.
The wire went dead.
May you like
Margaret picked up the syringe.
“And now, Emily, nobody outside can hear us.”
