Chapter 5 - David Admits the First Betrayal
Victoria slapped David so hard his head turned.
No one stopped her.
Margaret watched him straighten slowly.
“You knew?” Victoria said.
Her voice broke on the second word.
David touched his cheek.
“I knew there was a clause.”
“You knew someone was using our son.”
“I didn’t know Eleanor was behind all of it.”
“You knew enough.”
David looked at Margaret.
“I thought it was about taxes.”
Margaret laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“People always say taxes when they want to sound innocent around paperwork.”
David flinched.
He walked to the fireplace and stared into the cold grate.
“My father came to me before he died.”
Margaret said nothing.
“He told me he’d done things for Eleanor. He said he wanted to fix part of it.”
“By helping her again?”
“No.”
David turned.
“He gave me a list of accounts. He said if I ever saw money moving through them, I needed to follow it.”
Margaret’s eyes narrowed.
“And you did.”
“At first.”
“What happened?”
David’s face tightened.
“Eleanor called me.”
Victoria whispered, “Of course she did.”
“She knew my father had talked to me. She knew exactly what he’d said.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret looked toward Thomas.
Thomas shook his head.
David continued.
“She told me the accounts were part of a legal contingency structure. She said Rebecca had become paranoid before the accident and that my father carried guilt because he had enabled her.”
Margaret’s voice went cold.
“And you believed Eleanor over a dead man warning you about Eleanor?”
David looked ashamed.
“I wanted to.”
That answer was more believable than anything else he had said.
Margaret understood wanting a simpler truth.
Simple truths let people sleep.
“Then Leo was born,” David said. “A few months later, I received a trust distribution notice I didn’t understand. Eleanor said it was routine. I signed.”
“And kept signing.”
“Yes.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You told me Margaret controlled every dollar.”
“I was trying to keep you out of it.”
“No. You were keeping me ignorant.”
David’s voice rose.
“You think I wanted this?”
Margaret cut in.
“Wanting it is irrelevant.”
Everyone went quiet.
“You signed legal documents involving your child’s inheritance without independent counsel,” she said. “You hid accounts from your wife. You lied to me. You packed a bag and planned to leave tonight.”
David looked at the floor.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Now tell us the part you still haven’t said.”
His eyes lifted.
For the first time, she saw fear without performance.
“I got a message three weeks ago.”
“From Eleanor?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Rebecca.”
Margaret stopped.
Thomas stood abruptly.
“That’s impossible.”
David pulled out his main phone.
“She contacted me through an encrypted number.”
Margaret held out her hand.
He hesitated, then gave it to her.
The messages were still there.
YOU DON’T KNOW ME, BUT YOUR FATHER HELPED SAVE MY LIFE.
IF YOU WANT TO PROTECT LEO, STOP SIGNING ANYTHING ELEANOR SENDS.
DO NOT TELL MARGARET YET.
ELEANOR HAS SOMEONE INSIDE HER HOUSE.
Margaret looked at Thomas.
He looked wounded by the implication.
David continued.
“She told me to move money out of the compromised trust accounts.”
Margaret’s head snapped toward him.
“You moved it?”
“Yes.”
“To Eleanor?”
“No.”
David took the paperwork and pointed to the routing numbers.
“These accounts look like they belong to Eleanor because they’re registered through her firm.”
Thomas leaned over the page.
David continued.
“But the subaccounts are different. They were opened by someone using her credentials.”
Victoria frowned.
“Who?”
“That’s what I was going to New York to find out.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You still haven’t explained the beneficiary name.”
David swallowed.
“That’s because the beneficiary isn’t a person.”
Margaret looked back at the page.
ELEANOR SHAW appeared exactly where a name would be.
David pointed to a smaller line beneath it.
ES-1472.
“Eleanor Shaw is the registered trustee label,” he said. “ES-1472 is the actual account designation.”
Margaret turned to Thomas.
“Did Rebecca know this?”
“I don’t know.”
Mr. Cho, who had been silent near the door, spoke.
“Mrs. Wellington.”
Everyone looked at him.
He held a small device between two fingers.
“I found this under the library console.”
A listening transmitter.
Fresh adhesive.
Recently installed.
Margaret’s eyes moved around the room.
Someone had been listening to every word.
Mr. Cho turned the device over.
A tiny green light blinked once.
Then went dark.
He looked at Margaret.
“It just disconnected.”
Margaret felt the house grow colder.
May you like
Whoever was listening knew they had found Rebecca.
And now they knew Margaret was coming.
