Margaret's Beautiful Lie
Chapter 07 - Margaret's Beautiful Lie
Margaret stood in the doorway with a pistol in her hand and tears bright in her eyes.
The tears looked real.
That made them worse.
“Lucia always had such a gift for drama,” she said.
Victor moved first, shifting just enough to place himself between Margaret and the two women. The motion was small. Instinctive. Chloe noticed it because she had cleaned around men who protected power all day and almost never saw one protect people without first calculating the cost.
“Put it down,” he said.
Margaret smiled. “I raised you better than to give useless orders.”
Celeste's face had gone white. “You knew?”
“Oh, child.” Margaret's gaze softened as it moved to her. “I carried you down the back stairs myself.”
Victor's hand closed slowly. “Why?”
“Because your mother wanted to run.” Margaret's softness vanished. “She wanted to take you, take the girl, take money, take evidence, take everything your father built, and hand it to a judge who would have died before opening the envelope.”
“She wanted to protect her children,” Chloe said.
Margaret looked at her then, properly. “And you are?”
Chloe swallowed. “The maid.”
“Yes.” Margaret's mouth curved. “The most dangerous thing in any rich man's house. Someone no one watches until she begins watching back.”
Victor said, “You poisoned my room.”
“Not poison. Management.”
“You stole my sister.”
“I saved her life.”
Celeste flinched.
Margaret's voice lowered. “Leo wanted the infant dead. Your father wanted scandal buried. I put her in the arms of a woman who could not have children and told Leo she would become useful one day if he raised her well.”
“Raised me well?” Celeste whispered. “He used me.”
“Everyone is used, dear. Some of us are honest enough to admit it.”
Chloe's fever had left her weak, but anger warmed her now. “Lucia trusted you.”
For the first time, Margaret's face cracked.
“Lucia,” she said, “had the whole house ready to die for her. The cooks. The drivers. The maids. Even your father, Miss Bennett.”
Chloe went still.
“My father?”
Margaret's eyes flicked to Victor. “Patrick Bennett drove Lucia the night she tried to escape. He helped her hide the second envelope. Then he disappeared into an ordinary life before anyone thought to cut his throat.”
Chloe felt the floor shift beneath her.
Her father had never mentioned the Russos.
But then, after the stroke, there were many things he could not find words for.
Victor's voice hardened. “Where is the envelope?”
Margaret raised the pistol a little. “That is what Leo is asking Patrick Bennett right now.”
Chloe's heart stopped.
“My father is in Queens.”
“Was,” Margaret said gently.
Chloe moved toward her without thinking.
Victor caught her wrist, not hard, just enough. “No.”
Margaret's gaze dipped to the touch.
Something satisfied passed over her face.
“So it begins,” she murmured. “Lucia would have loved that. Her son saved by another working girl with clean hands.”
Victor's expression went flat.
Margaret saw it and stepped backward.
That was the only mistake she made.
Gabriel, Victor's security chief, came from the side corridor so silently even Chloe did not hear him until his hand closed around Margaret's wrist.
The gun hit the carpet.
Margaret laughed as they restrained her.
“You are already late,” she told Chloe. “Leo has your father. And he knows fever girl is the soft part now.”
Victor released Chloe's wrist.
She turned to him, shaking so hard she hated herself for it.
“My father,” she said.
Victor looked at her once.
May you like
Then he reached for his coat.
“We go now.”
