Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Sabrina put the call on speaker.
Robert whispered:
“Mom?”
Silence.
Then the woman answered:
“Hello, Robert.”
Sabrina watched her father age twenty years in one breath.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let us think you were dead.”
“No.”
“You disappeared!”
“I survived.”
Robert’s hands shook.
“Where have you been?”
Margaret ignored the question.
“Sabrina, listen carefully. Do not return to that house.”
Sabrina laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps telling me what not to do.”
Margaret paused.
“That sounds like me.”
“No. It sounds like everyone in this family.”
For the first time, Margaret had no immediate response.
Sabrina asked:
“Why does Christopher control my trust?”
“He wasn’t supposed to.”
“Then why does he?”
“Gregory altered the succession documents.”
“Was Christopher part of it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know Florence was living in the house?”
“Yes.”
Sabrina’s anger rose.
“You knew she searched my suitcase?”
“No.”
“You knew I was supporting them?”
“No.”
“You knew I married Christopher?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
Margaret whispered:
“Because I wanted to see what he would do.”
The words froze Sabrina.
“You used my marriage as a test?”
“No.”
“That’s exactly what you just said.”
Margaret’s voice softened.
“I knew Florence’s son might eventually approach you.”
“Approach me?”
Sabrina felt sick.
She had met Christopher at a company volunteer event.
He spilled coffee on her presentation notes.
Apologized.
Asked her out a week later.
Was that accidental?
“Did Christopher marry me because of the trust?”
Margaret answered carefully.
“I don’t know.”
That hurt more than yes.
Then Margaret said:
“You need a lawyer.”
“I already planned to call one.”
“Call Naomi Price.”
Robert stiffened.
Sabrina noticed.
“You know her?”
“She represents the trust.”
Robert said:
“She represented Margaret too.”
Margaret continued:
“Give Naomi your bank statements. Every expense you paid toward the house. Every transfer. Every debt Christopher asked you to cover.”
“Why?”
“Because if the trust has been abused, your payments may prove Christopher was deliberately shifting ordinary costs onto you while withdrawing trust assets for himself.”
Sabrina thought of two years of receipts.
She had everything.
She always saved statements.
Then Margaret said:
“And Sabrina?”
“Yes?”
“Do not tell Christopher you spoke to me.”
Too late.
Her phone beeped.
A message from Christopher:
You talked to Margaret.
Sabrina’s stomach dropped.
Another message:
You have no idea who she really is.
Then a photograph arrived.
Margaret Ellis.
Younger.
Standing beside Florence.
Gregory.
And a fourth person.
Sabrina’s mother.
Sabrina looked up.
Her mother went pale.
“Mom?”
Robert slowly turned toward his wife.
Margaret’s voice continued through the phone.
“Apparently Christopher has started showing you the photographs.”
Sabrina looked between her parents.
“What photograph?”
Her mother whispered:
“I was there.”
“Where?”
“The night Margaret disappeared.”
May you like
Sabrina stopped breathing.
And for the first time, her father looked at his wife as though he had never truly known her either.
