Chapter 8
Valeria asked to speak with Margaret.
Margaret refused twice.
On the third request, she agreed under one condition.
“Dominic doesn’t sit in.”
Valeria came to Margaret’s apartment without her engagement ring.
For several minutes, neither woman spoke.
Margaret poured coffee.
She did not offer Valeria any.
Valeria noticed.
“I deserve that.”
Margaret sat.
“You deserve much worse than bad manners.”
Valeria nodded.
“I know.”
“Then talk.”
Valeria had spent months convincing herself that she was only managing conflict.
Margaret was overbearing.
Dominic relied on her too much.
A new marriage needed privacy.
Those were the explanations Lucian gave her.
They worked because Valeria already wanted to believe them.
“I was jealous of you,” she admitted.
Margaret looked almost amused.
“I’m seventy-four.”
“Not like that.”
“I would hope not.”
Valeria nearly smiled.
It vanished immediately.
“Dominic trusted you in a way he never trusted me.”
“He knew me fifty-two years.”
“I know.”
“Apparently you didn’t.”
Valeria accepted that too.
She admitted moving Margaret’s belongings.
Changing two appointments.
Telling household staff to report mistakes.
Encouraging Dominic to interpret ordinary aging as confusion.
Margaret listened without interruption.
Then:
“Did you put the recorder inside Ava’s rabbit?”
“No.”
“Did you know Lucian was recording Dominic?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know he was recording me?”
“I suspected.”
“Did you stop him?”
“No.”
Margaret leaned back.
“Then why are you here?”
Valeria looked down.
“Because I want you to know I never wanted Ava involved.”
Margaret’s face changed.
“Do not use my granddaughter to make yourself feel better.”
“I’m not.”
“You shoved me while she was holding my hand.”
Valeria closed her eyes.
Margaret continued.
“She screamed.”
“I know.”
“You could have broken my hip.”
“I know.”
“You were thirty-six years old. I was seventy-four. You knew exactly who had the stronger body in that doorway.”
Valeria started crying.
Margaret did not soften.
“You’re not a victim because the man manipulating you was your brother.”
Valeria wiped her face.
“I know.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Then Valeria placed a small keycard on the table.
Margaret looked at it.
“What’s that?”
“Lucian keeps a private storage room inside the basement records facility at Knox Strategic.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“He doesn’t know I have it.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret stared at her.
Valeria continued.
“But every time he threatened me, he said the originals were somewhere nobody in Dominic’s house could reach.”
Margaret did not touch the card.
“You’re trying to trade.”
“No.”
“Then give it to investigators.”
Valeria looked startled.
Margaret pushed the card back.
“You people keep thinking truth only matters when you can exchange it for something.”
Valeria stared at her.
“If you want to help Dominic, help him.”
Margaret stood.
“If you want me to forgive you, that is a separate problem.”
Valeria left with the keycard.
The next morning, she turned it over through her attorney.
May you like
That choice did not erase what she had done.
But it was the first choice she had made in months that Lucian had not designed for her.
