Chapter 9 - The Mother Who Bought a Daughter
Cassandra slapped her mother.
Hard.
Nobody stopped her.
Margaret touched her cheek.
Then smiled.
“There you are.”
Cassandra shook.
“You bought me?”
Margaret looked around the room.
“Is that what Victor told you?”
“Answer me.”
“I raised you.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Margaret sighed.
“Yes.”
Cassandra looked like she'd been cut open.
“How much?”
Margaret’s silence answered.
“Five million?” Cassandra whispered.
“You were an infant.”
“So you bought me.”
“I protected you.”
“You took money.”
“I took compensation.”
Cassandra started laughing.
It sounded awful.
I knew that laugh.
The kind that comes when crying would hurt too much.
Dominic stepped toward Margaret.
“You set the fire tonight.”
“I came to clean up a problem.”
“You mean us.”
“I mean history.”
Marcus moved closer.
Margaret smiled at him.
“You think handcuffs frighten me?”
“No,” Marcus said. “But federal prison might.”
Her smile faded.
Dominic looked at him.
“Federal?”
Marcus held up his phone.
“The first fire alarm triggered an automatic emergency upload from the security system.”
He looked at Margaret.
“Every word in this room is already stored off-site.”
For the first time, she looked worried.
Dominic turned toward me.
“Elena, are you hurt?”
“I'm fine.”
My shoulder burned.
My lungs hurt from smoke.
But I was standing.
That felt like enough.
Fire crews rushed into the East Wing.
Marcus received a message.
He looked at me.
“They recovered the safe.”
“Anything left?”
“Some documents.”
Victor nodded.
“Enough.”
Dominic faced Margaret.
“Why was Elena targeted?”
Margaret laughed.
“Because she was always the dangerous one.”
I stared at her.
“I was a baby.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“Explain.”
Margaret looked at me.
“The trust didn't say the youngest named child.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“It said youngest surviving biological child.”
I understood.
“If Cassandra and I were born minutes apart…”
“Then one of you controls the trust.”
Dominic nodded slowly.
“Which one?”
Margaret smiled.
“No one knows.”
Cassandra looked at her.
“You know.”
“No.”
“You've known everything else.”
Margaret’s eyes flicked toward the locket.
That was enough.
I grabbed it.
“What?”
Margaret said nothing.
Victor suddenly looked at me.
“The locket opens.”
“I know. It opened the doors.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“The locket itself opens.”
My fingers found a tiny seam along the edge.
I had never noticed it.
I pressed my thumbnail against it.
Click.
The silver case opened.
Inside was no photograph.
There was a paper-thin strip of metal engraved with two names and two times.
SOPHIA ROSE — 11:42 PM
ELENA GRACE — 11:49 PM
I stared at the second line.
Victor whispered, “You were younger.”
Seven minutes.
That's all.
Seven minutes changed the ownership of a fortune.
Dominic looked at me.
“Under the trust, everything passes to you.”
Cassandra looked from the locket to me.
Her face went empty.
Then Margaret said something none of us expected.
“No.”
We turned.
She smiled.
“The trust passes to Elena when she turns twenty-nine.”
I swallowed.
“My birthday is tomorrow.”
Margaret nodded.
May you like
“Exactly.”
Then the grandfather clock began striking midnight.
