Chapter 10 - THE THING MARGOT DIDN’T KNOW
Margot cooperated more fully after learning where the money came from.
She had accepted financial support from Benjamin knowing he was married.
Catherine did not absolve her.
But Margot had also been lied to.
Benjamin claimed he funded the apartment from his consulting income.
He showed her payment confirmations stripped of account names.
When Margot discovered Catherine’s renovation account funded some of the money, she began forwarding records.
One revealed something Catherine did not expect.
Benjamin had also been charging Margot.
Not directly.
He told her he was setting aside money “for the children” and asked her to transfer portions of freelance income into a savings account he controlled.
Balance should have been nearly $22,000.
Actual balance:
$1,416.
Benjamin had used the rest to cover business expenses.
Margot stared at the statement in Grace’s office.
“He stole from them too.”
Catherine corrected her gently.
“He stole from all of us in different ways.”
Benjamin had not maintained two families because he loved two women.
He maintained two sources.
Catherine provided stability, property, credit, social respectability.
Margot provided emotional devotion and children he could use to imagine a different version of himself.
When both lives became expensive at the same time, he began taking from each to maintain the other.
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Eventually the math failed.
That was when he tried to combine the households by force.
