Chương 8
“Go away.”
“I want five minutes.”
“No.”
“I brought something.”
Sophie looked through the peephole.
Margaret stood alone.
She held a paper shopping bag from a grocery store.
Sophie almost laughed.
“What is it?”
“Soup.”
“What?”
“You look thin.”
Sophie leaned her forehead against the door.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I didn’t know what else to bring.”
That was so unlike Margaret that Sophie opened the door.
Not wide.
Margaret looked smaller outside the courtroom.
Still elegant.
Still composed.
But the plum suit was gone. She wore dark trousers, a cream blouse, and low shoes Sophie had never seen before.
The grocery bag looked absurd in her hand.
“You have three minutes.”
Margaret entered.
Sophie locked the door behind her.
Margaret looked around the apartment.
“You need a better lock.”
“You need a better opening sentence.”
Margaret set the bag on the counter.
For a moment neither spoke.
Then Margaret said, “I told him to let you go.”
“I saw.”
Something moved in Margaret’s face.
“You have the video.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“All of it.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Not long.
Just enough.
Sophie watched her.
“You gave Daniel thirty thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
The answer landed strangely because Sophie had expected denial.
“All thirty?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he say twenty?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t?”
“No.”
Sophie leaned against the counter.
“You paid him to erase it.”
“I paid him after it was erased.”
“That is not better.”
“I’m not suggesting it is.”
“Then why are you here?”
Margaret looked at the bag of soup.
“To ask you to take the settlement.”
Sophie laughed once.
“There she is.”
Margaret accepted that.
“You should take it.”
“Because it’s good for me?”
“Yes.”
“And for Dad.”
“Yes.”
“And for you.”
“Yes.”
Sophie waited.
Margaret did not pretend.
It made the conversation more difficult, not less.
“Why did Mom want him removed?”
Margaret’s head lifted.
“Who told you that?”
“Daniel.”
Margaret sat down slowly.
Sophie remained standing.
“What did she know?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“It is not.”
“He showed you documents.”
“He showed me an email.”
“From Mom?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
Margaret looked toward the window.
“Your mother believed Richard was moving company money through entities the board did not fully understand.”
Sophie’s stomach tightened.
“For himself?”
“She did not know.”
“But she was investigating.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Margaret gave her a tired look.
“Because Claire and Richard had been fighting for years. Your mother was brilliant, suspicious, stubborn, and sometimes spectacularly unfair.”
Sophie felt heat rise in her face.
“Don’t.”
“I loved her.”
“You spent half her funeral complaining that people were taking photographs.”
“Yes.”
“Who does that?”
“Someone whose son had just lost his wife and whose granddaughter was being photographed while crying.”
“You told me grief shouldn’t become performance.”
Margaret’s face changed.
“I remember.”
“I was sixteen.”
“I remember.”
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
Sophie had waited five years for Margaret to argue.
The agreement made her angrier.
“You don’t get to say yes now.”
“No.”
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Acting reasonable because the video exists.”
Margaret looked down at her hands.
“That is fair.”
“Stop.”
“All right.”
Sophie turned away.
The apartment refrigerator hummed.
Somewhere upstairs, someone dropped something heavy and swore.
Margaret said, “Your mother suspected Richard had guaranteed personal investments using Hale Meridian assets.”
Sophie looked back.
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because unlike your father, I have learned recently that uncertainty exists.”
Sophie almost smiled.
She hated that, too.
Margaret continued.
“Claire wanted an independent audit. Richard believed it would destroy a transaction he had spent two years arranging. They fought. She threatened to call a special board meeting.”
“And then she died.”
Margaret flinched.
Sophie regretted the sentence before it finished.
Margaret stood.
“If you are asking whether your father had anything to do with your mother’s accident, no.”
“You answered fast.”
“Because I asked myself that question before you knew there was a question.”
Sophie stared at her.
Margaret’s eyes filled, but no tears fell.
“The police report was clear. A truck crossed the median in freezing rain. The driver survived. Richard was in Chicago. I checked.”
Sophie felt sick.
“You checked?”
“Yes.”
“You thought he might have killed her?”
“I thought grief makes cowards imagine terrible things and then refuse to look at them.”
The room went quiet.
Sophie sat at the table.
Margaret did not.
“What happened to Mom’s investigation?”
“I asked Richard after the funeral.”
“And?”
“He said Claire had misunderstood the transactions.”
“You believed him.”
“I wanted to.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
Sophie looked at the soup bag.
“What kind?”
Margaret blinked.
“What?”
“The soup.”
“Oh.”
She opened the bag.
“Chicken.”
“I don’t eat chicken.”
Margaret stared at her.
“You ate chicken.”
“When I was fourteen.”
A small, helpless sound escaped Margaret.
It might have been a laugh.
“You’re right.”
She sat.
Sophie folded her arms.
“Why thirty thousand?”
Margaret’s expression returned to seriousness.
“Richard said Daniel wanted twenty to delete the footage. I gave him thirty and told him the other ten was to keep a copy.”
Sophie stopped.
“What?”
Margaret looked at her.
“I did not trust Richard.”
The entire shape of the story shifted again.
“You paid Daniel to keep it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had just watched my son frighten my granddaughter and then tell me the solution was to make the record disappear.”
Sophie stared at her.
“You still helped him.”
“Yes.”
“You let him think it was gone.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think it was gone.”
Margaret looked away.
“Yes.”
“For five months.”
“Yes.”
Sophie stood so quickly the chair tipped backward.
Margaret rose.
“Sophie—”
“You could have given it to me.”
“I should have.”
“You could have stopped him from calling me a liar.”
“Yes.”
“You could have stopped his lawyers from putting my therapy records in court.”
“I did not know they had those until they filed them.”
“You could have told the truth.”
May you like
Margaret’s composure cracked.
“And blown apart the company before I knew what Claire had found?”
