Chapter 6 - Someone Inside Margaret’s Own House
Margaret did not sleep.
By midnight, Leo was safe in the guest suite with Caroline, the nanny who had called Margaret earlier.
Victoria stayed with him.
Margaret had expected resistance.
Instead, Victoria sat beside the crib in silence, eyes swollen from crying.
The anger she had shown earlier had burned itself into something harder.
Shame.
Margaret did not absolve her.
Not yet.
But she recognized the difference between cruelty and a person cracking under pressure.
Victoria had behaved terribly.
The reason would matter.
It would not erase it.
Downstairs, Mr. Cho’s team searched the mansion.
They found two more listening devices.
One behind a smoke detector.
One inside the study lamp.
Both were professional.
Thomas insisted he had never seen them.
Margaret believed almost nothing now.
At one in the morning, Samuel brought coffee into the study.
Margaret watched him set the cup down.
Samuel had driven her for eleven years.
His wife had attended Margaret’s Christmas dinners.
His daughter had received a Wellington Foundation scholarship.
Trust had become an expensive word.
“Samuel.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Who knew I was coming here tonight?”
He paused.
“Your office.”
“Who specifically?”
“Your assistant. Security. Me.”
“And Thomas?”
“No.”
Margaret looked at him carefully.
“Did you call anyone after we arrived?”
“No.”
He met her gaze without flinching.
Margaret nodded.
“Thank you.”
He turned to leave.
“Samuel.”
He stopped.
“If I ask you a question tonight, I need the truth even if you think it will hurt me.”
His expression changed.
“I understand.”
“Did Rebecca ever contact you?”
He went still.
Margaret closed her eyes.
There it was.
Another silence.
Another person who had known.
Samuel sat slowly.
“Once.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
Margaret gripped the edge of the desk.
“What did she say?”
“She asked if you were safe.”
“That’s all?”
“She asked if Eleanor still came to the house.”
Margaret stared at him.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
“She was my daughter.”
“I know.”
“No. You knew she was alive while I visited a grave.”
Samuel’s eyes filled.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Margaret stood.
“Everyone keeps protecting me by lying.”
He lowered his head.
“Rebecca said if you knew, you’d go after Eleanor immediately.”
“She was right.”
“And she said that would get you killed.”
That stopped Margaret.
Samuel reached into his jacket.
He removed a folded piece of paper worn soft at the edges.
“She gave me this.”
Margaret unfolded it.
A locker number.
Grand Central Terminal.
B-214.
No date.
No explanation.
“Why keep it?”
“She said only give it to you if Leo was ever in danger.”
Margaret looked toward the ceiling.
Leo was asleep above them.
“Then tonight qualifies.”
At dawn, Margaret made a decision.
She would go to New York.
Not with David.
Not with Thomas.
Not even with Samuel.
She would go with Mr. Cho and one attorney Eleanor did not know.
A woman named June Mercer, a former federal prosecutor who had once worked opposite Margaret in a corporate investigation and earned her respect by refusing to be intimidated.
Margaret called her at six-fifteen.
June answered on the third ring.
“Someone better be dead.”
Margaret looked at Rebecca’s letter.
“Maybe not.”
There was a long pause.
“Margaret?”
“I need you in New York.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“What kind of trouble?”
Margaret glanced toward David, asleep in a chair across the room.
“The kind that comes with forged signatures, stolen trust assets, and a daughter who has been dead for five years but apparently isn’t.”
June was silent.
Then she said, “I’ll meet you at Grand Central.”
Margaret hung up.
Behind her, David spoke.
“You can’t go there.”
She turned.
He was awake.
“Why?”
He stood.
“Because Rebecca sent me another message.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
Margaret crossed the room and took his phone.
The message contained only six words.
DO NOT OPEN LOCKER B-214.
Margaret looked at David.
May you like
Then at the note in her hand.
Someone had just confirmed they knew exactly what Rebecca had left behind.
