Chapter 10 - Margaret arrives
My mother was not inside the factory.
She had remotely accessed an old Carroway emergency system.
The alarm alerted her because she had compromised part of the network years earlier.
“Where are you?”
“Twenty minutes away.”
“Don’t come.”
“I’m already moving.”
“Mom—”
“I know.”
Her voice collapsed.
“I know I don’t get to call you baby and expect ten years to disappear.”
I started crying.
Not gently.
All the grief I had buried came at once.
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the people who found me after the crash said you would be next.”
“Who?”
Silence.
Then:
“Margaret Cole.”
My stomach turned.
Margaret had known my mother personally.
Not simply as an executive chasing evidence.
“How?”
“Later.”
“No.”
I slammed my hand against the console.
“No more later.”
My mother inhaled.
Then said:
“Margaret is your aunt.”
The factory disappeared around me.
“What?”
“My sister.”
I had no aunt Margaret.
My mother had told me she was an only child.
Another lie.
Laura and Margaret Cole were half-sisters.
Same mother.
Different fathers.
They grew up separately.
Margaret became wealthy.
Laura became an engineer.
Years later, Laura discovered Carroway’s corruption and tried to confront her privately.
Margaret chose the company.
Not her sister.
Then Laura’s accident happened.
“Did Margaret try to kill you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I know people working for Carroway interfered with my car. I never proved Margaret ordered it.”
Again.
Evidence before emotion.
At least my mother had learned that.
Then Wade’s voice came faintly over another channel.
“Rachel…”
Alive.
Barely.
He had reached an emergency phone.
“Derek opened the west gate.”
Why?
Then headlights swept across the factory windows.
Multiple vehicles.
Nicole looked outside.
“Too soon for your mother.”
Black SUVs.
Margaret.
The CEO hadn’t sent Derek to finish us.
She came herself.
The main doors opened.
Men in dark jackets entered.
Not police.
Private security.
Then Margaret’s voice echoed through the factory.
“Rachel Bennett.”
Calm.
Almost maternal.
“I am sorry this became ugly.”
Nicole laughed bitterly.
“Ugly?”
Margaret ignored her.
“Come out, Rachel. You and the baby can leave.”
I looked at Nicole.
Neither of us believed her.
Then Margaret added:
“But Nicole stays.”
Nicole went pale.
May you like
And my mother whispered through the speaker:
“Do not make that trade.”
