Chapter 6 - Margaret's Version of the TruthDaniel put the call on speaker.
Detective Reyes listened.
Sophie was upstairs with a child-services counselor and couldn't hear.
“Explain,” Daniel said.
Margaret laughed softly.
“You've already decided I'm evil.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I protected assets.”
“By moving my daughter's money?”
“You don't understand the accounts.”
“Then help me understand.”
A pause.
Daniel could almost feel Margaret recalculating.
“Emily hated me.”
“No.”
“She tolerated me because of you.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
“She wanted control of the foundation.”
Daniel remembered arguments between Emily and Margaret.
Nothing explosive.
Little disagreements about donations.
Emily believed the foundation needed independent audits.
Margaret called that unnecessary bureaucracy.
At the time, Daniel thought both women were simply stubborn.
Margaret continued.
“Your wife started asking questions she had no business asking.”
“She found missing money.”
“There was no missing money.”
“I have statements.”
“You have partial records.”
“$1.84 million went to Harborlight.”
Silence.
Daniel pressed.
“Who is Eleanor Price?”
Margaret didn't answer.
“Mom.”
Her voice became cold.
“Do not contact Eleanor.”
That was all Daniel needed.
“You know her.”
“Leave her alone.”
“Why?”
“Because she has nothing to do with Sophie.”
“You made that connection, not me.”
Margaret stopped.
Daniel looked at Reyes.
He was writing.
“Who is Eleanor?”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Someone your father knew.”
Daniel froze.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
Robert Carter had been dead eighteen years.
Daniel had been twenty-one.
His father had suffered a heart attack in his office.
“What does Dad have to do with Harborlight?”
“You are asking questions that will only hurt you.”
“Answer.”
“You don't need every truth.”
“That sentence might have worked on me yesterday.”
Margaret said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“Emily knew.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Another long pause.
“That your father wasn't the man you thought he was.”
Daniel felt irritation rising.
“Don't do this.”
“You wanted answers.”
“What did he do?”
Margaret sighed.
“Eleanor was his mistress.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
Reyes looked up.
Margaret continued.
“For years.”
Daniel's mind rejected it.
His parents had appeared solid.
Traditional.
Margaret still kept Robert's photograph beside her bed.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“What does that have to do with stolen foundation money?”
“Your father left obligations.”
“To his mistress?”
“To someone he cared about.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So you've been sending her foundation money for twenty years?”
“No.”
“How long?”
Margaret didn't answer.
“Mom.”
“After Robert died, I discovered what he'd done.”
“What?”
“He had promised Eleanor financial security.”
“That doesn't make charity money hers.”
“I know.”
“Then why transfer it?”
“Because she had information.”
Daniel felt a different kind of cold.
“What information?”
Margaret whispered,
“About you.”
Daniel stopped.
Reyes leaned closer.
“What about me?”
“I won't discuss this on the phone.”
“You're already discussing it.”
“No.”
“Then come to the station.”
Margaret laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Because you gave police Emily's files.”
“How do you know?”
Margaret hung up.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Reyes asked,
“Can she access your security system?”
“Not anymore.”
“Financial accounts?”
“I'll freeze everything.”
“Do it.”
Daniel immediately called his bank and attorney.
Passwords changed.
Accounts flagged.
Access revoked.
Then Sophie came downstairs.
The counselor had gone.
She looked exhausted.
“Is Grandma coming back?”
“No.”
Sophie seemed relieved.
Daniel hated that relief.
He crouched.
“Did Grandma ever mention Eleanor?”
Sophie thought.
“No.”
“Harborlight?”
“No.”
“Your grandfather?”
She shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“Grandma has a picture.”
“Of Grandpa?”
“No.”
“A woman?”
Sophie nodded.
“In her blue folder.”
“What blue folder?”
“The one she told me never to touch.”
Daniel looked at Reyes.
“Where?”
Sophie pointed upstairs.
“Grandma's room.”
Margaret had maintained a bedroom in Daniel's house.
Police had not searched it.
Not yet.
Reyes obtained consent from Daniel for areas he legally controlled while seeking a warrant for Margaret's locked cabinet.
Inside the unlocked dresser, they found nothing.
Inside the closet—
a blue folder.
Sophie had been right.
Daniel opened it.
A photograph slid out.
Eleanor Price.
Standing beside Robert Carter.
Young.
Smiling.
Holding a baby.
Daniel stared.
The child's face was partially hidden.
On the back, Robert's handwriting:
Eleanor and Michael — June 1987.
Daniel's heartbeat changed.
Michael?
Reyes looked at him.
“Do you know that name?”
Daniel shook his head.
Then another paper fell from the folder.
A birth certificate.
Michael Price.
Father:
Robert Carter.
Daniel sat down.
His dead father had another son.
May you like
Daniel had a half-brother.
And Margaret had known for almost forty years.
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