Chapter 4 - Margaret’s Story
Margaret had not told Elena everything.
Not because she was hiding guilt.
Because she was ashamed.
They were sitting in a hotel room that evening when Margaret finally admitted what happened before the vase broke.
“I went into the study yesterday.”
Elena looked up.
“You told Brandon you only went in to close the window.”
“I did.”
“But?”
Margaret folded her hands.
“There were papers on the floor.”
“What papers?”
“I don’t know. Bank things.”
“Mom.”
“I didn’t read them.”
Elena waited.
Margaret looked down.
“I saw your name.”
That was different.
Margaret had bent down to pick up several pages that had apparently slipped from a folder beside Brandon’s desk.
One contained Elena’s full name.
Another contained Margaret’s.
Elena sat straighter.
“Your name?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of document?”
“I couldn’t understand it.”
“Did you take anything?”
“No.”
“Did Brandon see you?”
“He came in while I was holding the papers.”
That explained the fury.
“What did he do?”
“He grabbed them.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
Margaret hesitated.
“Not then.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret stared at the hotel carpet.
“Today, before you came home, he told me I needed to leave.”
“Before the money accusation?”
“Yes.”
Elena went completely still.
Brandon had entered the kitchen around four that afternoon and told Margaret her apartment repairs were taking too long.
She said she would speak with the landlord.
He said that was not enough.
Then he accused her of interfering with his marriage.
Margaret told him she would leave when Elena got home so they could discuss it together.
That was when Brandon became angry.
“He asked whether I had told you about the papers.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
“What did you say?”
“That I planned to.”
Elena understood.
The accusation came next.
Brandon walked into his study.
Returned minutes later.
Announced money was missing.
Said Margaret had stolen it.
“I thought he was just trying to scare me,” Margaret whispered.
“And the vase?”
“He grabbed my purse.”
“Why?”
“He said he wanted to search it.”
Elena’s eyes hardened.
“I told him no. He pulled it from me, and I backed into the table. The vase fell.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because I let him talk to me like I was a thief.”
Elena moved closer.
“No. He should be embarrassed.”
Margaret wiped her eyes.
Then she remembered something.
“There was a small envelope.”
“What envelope?”
“Inside the papers.”
Margaret described it.
Cream-colored.
Bank logo in one corner.
Brandon had snatched it from her hands particularly quickly.
“Was it addressed to you?”
Margaret shook her head.
“To Lauren Ruiz.”
Elena froze.
That was her grandmother’s name.
The woman whose inheritance account someone had just attempted to access.
Her grandmother had been dead six years.
Whatever Brandon had in that study was connected to money Elena had never given him permission to touch.
Rachel answered on the first ring.
When Elena told her about the envelope, the attorney said only one thing.
“Do not go back to the house tonight.”
Elena looked toward the dark hotel window.
May you like
“Why?”
“Because I think Brandon expected your mother to find something. He just didn’t expect her to understand enough to tell you.”
