Chapter 9 - Margaret’s Lie
Emily returned to the mansion with the photograph clenched in her hand.
Margaret was waiting in the library.
Emily placed the picture in front of her.
“You lied.”
Margaret stared at it.
Her face collapsed.
Daniel stood beside Emily.
“You said you never saw Anna again after she was fired.”
Margaret sat down.
“I was ashamed.”
Emily’s anger exploded.
“Of what?”
Margaret finally told the truth.
Six months after Anna disappeared, Margaret received a telephone call.
Anna asked to meet.
Margaret went alone.
She found Anna living under another name in a cheap apartment with infant Emily.
Anna told her Charles had framed her.
She showed Margaret copies of suspicious financial documents.
Margaret didn’t believe everything.
But she believed enough.
“Then why didn’t you help her?”
“I did.”
Margaret’s voice shook.
“I gave her money.”
Emily laughed in disbelief.
“You gave her money?”
“I helped her leave the state.”
“You helped her disappear.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Why?”
Margaret looked at him.
“Because she told me Charles threatened Emily.”
The room fell silent.
Margaret said Anna wanted only one thing.
Time.
She planned to gather enough evidence to expose Charles safely.
Margaret promised not to tell Robert where Anna was until Anna gave permission.
Then Robert discovered the truth himself.
Years later, he found Anna.
By then Margaret and Robert’s marriage had become distant and bitter.
Margaret never admitted she had helped Anna disappear.
“You let Dad spend years searching.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked wounded.
Margaret continued.
“When Robert died, I believed Charles might be responsible.”
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“I had no proof.”
“That has never stopped you from hiring lawyers for everything else.”
Margaret flinched.
Emily looked at the photograph again.
“You said you helped my mother leave the state.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Colorado.”
Emily froze.
Her mother’s crash happened in Colorado.
Margaret nodded.
“That’s why I believed she was dead.”
Emily remembered the message in Anna’s box.
The necklace they used to destroy me is still inside that house.
Maybe Anna had prepared the box before the crash.
Or maybe someone else had placed it with Emily’s aunt years later.
Daniel’s phone rang.
It was his attorney.
He listened for almost a minute.
Then his expression changed.
“What happened?”
Daniel ended the call.
“Charles called an emergency board meeting.”
Margaret stood.
“On what grounds?”
Daniel looked at Emily.
“He’s claiming I’ve become compromised by a fraudulent inheritance scheme.”
Emily understood immediately.
Charles was attacking first.
Daniel continued.
“And Vanessa gave him evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“A sworn statement saying Emily admitted she came here to steal control of Mercer Holdings.”
Emily’s face went cold.
Daniel wasn’t finished.
“There’s an audio recording attached.”
He turned his phone toward her.
Emily’s own voice came through the speaker.
I came to this house for what belongs to me.
The sentence was real.
Emily remembered saying it.
May you like
But Vanessa had removed everything around it.
And by morning, the recording was already spreading online.
