Chapter 17 - The War Margaret Started Years Ago
I finally understood why Margaret had investigated me before Ethan proposed.
It was not only because I was Emily's mother.
She knew my name.
Northstar.
The audit.
The lost contract.
Millions of dollars in expected revenue disappeared after my team questioned suspicious invoices.
I had not known who ultimately owned the company.
Margaret had.
Samantha later confirmed it.
"She hated you before Emily ever met Ethan."
Emily looked horrified.
"Did Ethan marry me because of Mom?"
Samantha hesitated.
That hesitation hurt.
She told us Ethan had first approached Emily intentionally.
Margaret wanted information about me.
But something unexpected happened.
Ethan genuinely became attracted to Emily.
For a while, Samantha believed the relationship might separate him from Margaret.
Instead, Ethan became more like her.
The marriage gave the family access to my daughter.
They used Emily to monitor whether I was ever reopening questions about Northstar.
When they learned I had no knowledge of their ownership, Margaret considered the risk contained.
Then Emily began noticing financial irregularities in Ethan's businesses.
She asked questions.
Ethan became controlling.
Margaret encouraged him.
A plan that began as surveillance turned into abuse.
Emily stared at the floor.
"My entire marriage was built on a lie."
I took her hand.
"His reasons were lies."
"Your love wasn't."
She looked at me.
"You loved who you believed he was."
"That doesn't make your feelings fake."
It made his behavior fraudulent.
Emily needed that distinction.
So did I.
Charles Prescott eventually agreed to cooperate.
He admitted helping hide Northstar ownership.
He admitted collecting compromising material on officials.
He admitted paying intermediaries.
His attorneys asked for leniency.
Prosecutors promised nothing.
Charles looked twenty years older when he testified before a grand jury.
Margaret called him a traitor.
He answered through his attorney.
"I became a traitor to my family the day my family became loyal to crime."
It sounded noble.
But it came decades too late.
Samantha refused to forgive him.
"I can acknowledge that he saved my life without pretending he didn't help build the thing that nearly destroyed it."
That sentence stayed with me.
People wanted simple villains.
Simple heroes.
Life rarely provided them.
Then Voss made contact.
Not with investigators.
With me.
A disposable phone arrived inside a package sent to Rachel's office.
It rang at noon.
"Colonel Hart."
His voice matched Margaret's recording.
"You cost me a great deal."
"You did that yourself."
He laughed.
"Still disciplined."
"What do you want?"
"Margaret has one final archive."
Rachel signaled Brooks.
The call was being traced.
Voss continued.
"Not Crown."
"Something older."
"What is it?"
"The original Blue Room."
I frowned.
"We found the Blue Room."
"No."
He laughed again.
"You found Margaret's copy."
"The first archive belonged to Charles."
"And it contains names Margaret was terrified to touch."
"Where?"
"Ask your daughter."
The call ended.
The trace failed.
Emily stared at me.
"I don't know anything about another room."
Then Samantha spoke.
"I might."
Everyone turned.
She described an old hunting lodge owned by Charles.
Emily's face changed.
"Ethan took me there after our engagement."
"Was there anything blue?"
Emily thought.
Then she whispered.
"The library."
May you like
Every wall had been painted dark blue.
And behind one bookshelf, she remembered seeing a keypad.
