Chapter 8 - MARGARET’S SECOND CHILD
Richard stared at her.
“What are you talking about?”
Margaret looked exhausted.
Almost human.
Almost.
“Let me inside.”
Detective Harris blocked her.
“You’re staying right there.”
She raised her bloody arm.
“Marcus found me before I came here.”
Marcus snapped, “That’s a lie.”
“Not you.”
Everyone went still.
Margaret looked toward the road.
“Your sister.”
Marcus’s face emptied.
“I don’t have a sister.”
“You do.”
Margaret reached inside her coat slowly.
Police tensed.
She pulled out a photograph.
A young woman holding a baby.
On the back was a name.
Claire Harlan.
Richard took the picture.
Margaret spoke.
“Samuel had a daughter before he married Marcus’s mother.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
“She was adopted privately.”
“Why would you know that?”
Margaret’s face twisted.
“Because I arranged it.”
Even Richard looked stunned.
Margaret explained.
Claire had been born to another woman Samuel was seeing before Margaret.
Years later, Samuel located Claire.
He planned to leave part of his estate to her.
After his death, Margaret found the correspondence and hid it.
Marcus stepped toward her.
“You stole my sister?”
“I hid paperwork.”
“You erased her.”
“I was protecting Daniel.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Stop saying that.”
Margaret looked at him.
“I did everything for you.”
“You tried to poison me.”
Her face collapsed for half a second.
Then hardened again.
“It was one moment.”
“One moment?”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You don’t get to call attempted murder a bad afternoon.”
Richard turned away.
Marcus demanded Claire’s location.
Margaret hesitated.
Then looked at me.
“She contacted Emma.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“The anonymous email.”
My phone felt suddenly heavy.
The lab number.
The warning before the fire.
Claire.
“Why would she contact me?”
“Because she discovered what Colin and I were doing.”
“You knew?”
“No. Not until yesterday.”
Margaret looked toward the gate again.
“She confronted me this morning.”
“Is that how you hurt your arm?”
Margaret nodded.
“She was furious.”
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photo arrived.
Lily’s school.
Taken from across the street.
Then a message.
MARGARET IS LYING AGAIN.
Another.
ASK HER WHAT SHE DID WITH SAMUEL’S ORIGINAL WILL.
Marcus turned on Margaret.
“There was another will?”
She said nothing.
Richard grabbed her shoulders.
“Margaret.”
She shoved him away.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Marcus shouted, “It matters to me!”
Margaret snapped.
“Samuel left half his private holdings to Claire.”
Silence.
“And the rest?” Daniel asked.
Margaret looked at him.
“To you.”
Daniel froze.
Marcus went pale.
Samuel had known.
He had known Daniel was his son.
Margaret had hidden a will that would have changed three lives.
Marcus’s.
Claire’s.
Daniel’s.
Maybe Richard’s too.
Daniel whispered, “Where is it?”
Margaret’s eyes moved toward the mansion.
The archive room.
The room Colin had tried to burn.
Richard understood.
“It’s still inside.”
Margaret looked at the smoke-stained east wing.
“If Colin’s fire didn’t destroy it.”
Detective Harris sent officers in.
Twenty minutes later, one came back holding a metal document box.
Locked.
Richard stared at Margaret.
“Key.”
She reached beneath her collar.
A small brass key hung from a chain.
She handed it over.
Daniel opened the box.
Inside lay Samuel Harlan’s original will.
And beneath it…
a sealed envelope addressed to Richard.
Richard opened it.
Read the first sentence.
Then sat down hard.
“What does it say?” I asked.
Richard stared at Daniel.
“Samuel says your mother told him I knew Daniel wasn’t mine…”
He swallowed.
“…and that I paid her to keep quiet.”
Daniel stared.
“Did you?”
Richard’s answer came immediately.
May you like
“No.”
Margaret suddenly ran.
