Chapter 10 - Margaret’s Version
Margaret agreed to a video call.
Not in person.
Sabrina refused to let her control the conversation.
“Did you arrange the warehouse meeting?”
“Yes.”
The answer shocked everyone.
“Why?”
“I wanted Gregory caught.”
“Did Diane know?”
“No.”
“Did Elaine?”
“No.”
“You used them as bait.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Robert stood and walked away from the screen.
Sabrina’s voice shook.
“Florence said Diane ran from you.”
“In part.”
“What does that mean?”
Margaret had discovered Gregory’s theft.
She wanted evidence strong enough for prosecution.
She arranged the warehouse meeting, expecting a private investigator nearby to photograph Gregory taking falsified documents.
But the investigator never arrived.
Why?
Because Margaret’s instructions were intercepted.
By Florence.
Margaret went anyway.
Diane arrived.
Elaine too.
Everything spiraled.
Margaret admitted she ordered Diane to bring Sabrina nowhere near the meeting.
Diane left the baby with Elaine earlier.
Then Gregory became violent.
Margaret escaped through a loading bay.
She thought Diane followed.
She didn’t.
“Why didn’t you go back?”
“I was afraid.”
Again.
That word.
Margaret hid.
Then learned Diane and Gregory had disappeared.
Florence controlled the story.
Margaret thought Gregory had killed Diane.
Years later she discovered Diane alive.
Diane refused to come home.
“Why?”
“Because she blamed me.”
Fair.
Margaret had used her daughter in an operation without consent.
Then Sabrina asked:
“Why create the trust?”
“To protect Diane from Gregory.”
“Why make Gregory trustee?”
“I created the trust before I understood how involved he was.”
Bad timing.
Human error.
Not perfect conspiracy.
Then the hardest question:
“Did you want Diane to have me because you needed an heir?”
Margaret’s face changed.
“No.”
“Florence said—”
“Florence lies.”
“You do too.”
Margaret absorbed that.
“Yes.”
Sabrina appreciated the admission.
Then Margaret said:
“Diane nearly died giving birth to you. She wanted you desperately.”
Sabrina’s eyes filled.
“Why didn’t she return for me?”
“She believed Elaine was safer.”
“Did she know Elaine married Robert?”
“Yes.”
“Her own brother.”
“She chose not to interfere.”
That hurt.
Diane watched from a distance while her brother unknowingly raised his niece.
Maybe protection.
Maybe cowardice.
Probably both.
Then Margaret said something unexpected.
“Diane contacted Christopher.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Christopher froze.
“When?”
“Before your wedding.”
Sabrina stared.
“You met my mother?”
Christopher looked horrified.
“No.”
Margaret continued:
“She used another name.”
A woman named Laura Bennett had met Christopher at a coffee shop.
He remembered.
Mid-fifties.
Asked questions about Florence.
He assumed she was a former family friend.
“She told me not to marry Sabrina if my mother was involved in our finances.”
Sabrina stared.
“And you married me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“What else did she say?”
Christopher closed his eyes.
“She said Florence destroys women who threaten her control.”
That sentence haunted the room.
Then Margaret emailed a photograph.
Laura Bennett.
Diane.
Sabrina stared at her biological mother for the first time.
Alive.
Older.
Watching.
Then Naomi noticed the background.
The photograph had been taken outside a bank.
Date visible in metadata:
Three weeks ago.
May you like
Diane was alive now.
And she had recently accessed the trust’s primary account.
