Chapter 10 - Margaret Finally Tells The Truth
Margaret requested a meeting before entering a plea.
Emily almost refused.
Then she decided she wanted one answer.
Why Benjamin?
Why now?
They met through glass at the county detention center.
Margaret looked smaller.
No pearls.
No perfect hair.
No authority.
Emily picked up the phone.
“You have ten minutes.”
Margaret nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s not why I came.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Why did you transfer that embryo into me?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Because Richard was falling apart.”
Emily stared.
“No.”
Margaret looked confused.
“No?”
“That answer makes him the center. Try again.”
Margaret swallowed.
“Because I wanted Noah back.”
Emily froze.
Margaret began crying.
“Noah was my grandson. After he died, Sarah died, William died, Andrew
was already gone… everything collapsed.”
“So you decided to recreate him?”
“I knew the embryo was genetically similar.”
“Similar?”
“Same genetic parents.”
Emily felt sick.
“You thought Benjamin would be Noah again.”
“I know how insane that sounds.”
“It is insane.”
“Yes.”
Emily’s voice sharpened.
“You used my body as an incubator for your grief.”
Margaret cried.
“Yes.”
“You let me believe the embryo was created during my IVF cycle.”
“Yes.”
“You ordered a test at birth.”
“Yes.”
“Why Tyler?”
“He discovered Sophie’s records. He threatened to expose everything
unless I gave him answers.”
“So you used his fear.”
“Yes.”
“And Richard?”
“I told him the scandal would destroy the Mercer company and Noah’s
memory.”
Emily shook her head.
“You people keep confusing reputation with memory.”
Margaret looked down.
Emily continued.
“Noah doesn’t become less loved because the truth is ugly.”
“I know that now.”
“Do you?”
Margaret nodded weakly.
Emily asked her final question.
“Did you know William ordered my father’s death?”
Margaret began sobbing.
Emily already knew.
“Yes,” Margaret whispered.
“When?”
“Afterward.”
“And you stayed silent.”
“I was afraid of William.”
“Then after he died?”
Margaret had no answer.
Emily hung up.
Ten minutes had not passed.
She left.
Margaret later pleaded guilty to multiple charges and agreed to testify
against remaining participants in the fertility network.
Emily did not celebrate.
She took Benjamin to the park.
He was nearly one.
He had learned to say “ball,” “dog,” and something that sounded
suspiciously like “no.”
Claire joined them.
“How was Margaret?”
“Truthful.”
“That good?”
“No.”
Emily watched Benjamin chase a leaf.
“Truth doesn’t automatically feel good.”
Claire nodded.
“But it gives you something solid.”
“Yes.”
Benjamin fell.
Emily instinctively started toward him.
Then he pushed himself up.
He looked at her.
She smiled.
“You’re okay.”
He toddled onward.
Emily laughed.
Claire watched her.
“You’ve changed.”
“I hope so.”
“You used to panic if he moved three feet away.”
“I still panic.”
“You hide it better.”
Emily smiled.
She had spent Benjamin’s first months terrified someone would take him.
Therapy helped her understand how the hospital trauma had shaped her
parenting.
She did not want fear to become another form of control.
That family pattern ended with her.
Her phone buzzed.
A video from Laura.
Sophie had scored the winning goal.
Emily watched it twice.
Benjamin clapped because everyone else was clapping.
Emily saved the video.
Then she put the phone away.
The children were not secrets anymore.
They were not evidence.
They were not pieces of William Mercer’s genetic plan.
May you like
They were simply children.
That was the truth Emily wanted to build around them.
