Chapter 4 - Sophie Heard Margaret’s Real Plan
Everyone turned toward the child.
Emily crouched.
“You don’t have to tell us anything else right now.”
Sophie looked at the adults.
“I want to.”
A child specialist later took the formal account so nobody would
repeatedly question her.
What Sophie had heard was simple.
That morning, she had wandered toward Charles’s study looking for
wrapping ribbon.
The door was open.
Margaret was inside speaking on the phone.
Sophie heard:
“David cannot see the report.”
Then:
“Emily will be asleep before he gets near Robert.”
Sophie entered.
Margaret saw her.
She asked how long Sophie had been standing there.
Sophie said she did not know.
Margaret took her outside and told her to play in the garden.
Then she locked the gate.
The card beside it—SHE MUST LEARN HER PLACE—was meant to make the
punishment look deliberate and unrelated to the study.
Emily stared at Margaret.
“You imprisoned a five-year-old because she overheard you.”
Margaret covered her face.
“I panicked.”
Robert’s voice was quiet.
“And Emily’s drink?”
Margaret finally admitted she had intended to put a prescription
sedative into it.
Not poison.
Not enough, she claimed, to seriously harm her.
Just enough to make Emily tired.
Emily almost could not process the distinction Margaret seemed to
believe mattered.
“Why me?”
“Because you ask questions.”
Robert stared at his mother.
Margaret continued.
“David contacted me three days ago. I knew he would come here. I knew if
Emily saw anything strange, she would push until everything came out.”
“So you planned to drug my wife.”
“I planned to make her rest.”
Emily laughed once.
Coldly.
“You planned to remove me from the room without my consent.”
Margaret looked down.
“Yes.”
David had learned about the reception from an old family acquaintance.
He entered wearing a borrowed catering jacket because he wanted to
confront Margaret and Robert with the documents he possessed.
When he saw Margaret beside Emily’s glass with a pill container, he
intervened.
He told her quietly:
“Not another person.”
Margaret backed away.
Sophie saw that too.
Then Margaret locked her in the garden.
Police collected Margaret’s purse.
Inside was a prescription bottle bearing Margaret’s name.
The medication was a sedative.
Whether the shattered champagne contained it would require testing.
Margaret looked at Robert.
“I was afraid of losing you.”
Robert held Charles’s letter.
“You lost me when you decided fear gave you permission to control
everyone.”
Then David spoke.
“There’s another reason she didn’t want that report opened.”
Margaret looked at him sharply.
David continued.
“Robert isn’t the only child whose father was changed on paper.”
Emily looked at Sophie instinctively.
David shook his head.
“Not Sophie.”
He looked toward Margaret.
“Her daughter.”
Robert frowned.
“I don’t have a sister.”
May you like
David answered:
“Yes, you do.”
