Chapter 12 - What Margaret Was Really Protecting
Finding Rebecca Hale took less than twenty-four hours.
Nathan’s investigator located her in Vermont.
She had remarried.
She had two adult daughters.
She had never stopped thinking about Daniel.
But before Daniel could call her, Margaret called him.
For the first time since disappearing.
He put the phone on speaker.
“Come home,” Daniel said.
“No.”
“Where is Noah?”
“Safe.”
“Jessica?”
“With me.”
“What do you want?”
Margaret laughed bitterly.
“You think this is about what I want?”
“It has always been about what you want.”
Silence.
Daniel continued.
“I know about Rebecca.”
Margaret stopped breathing for a second.
I heard it.
Then her voice changed.
“Who told you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Your father promised me.”
“Promised you what?”
“That no one would ever take you away from me.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Nobody was taking me away.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Margaret’s voice cracked for the first time.
“I couldn’t have children.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“Richard wanted a family.”
“So you adopted me.”
“Yes.”
“There’s nothing shameful about that.”
“You don’t know the Carters.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“I am a Carter.”
“That family worshiped blood.”
“Like you did to Lily?”
Margaret said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“You became exactly what you were afraid of.”
Her voice turned cold again.
“I protected you.”
“You destroyed my marriage.”
“She was going to take you from me.”
“Emily never tried to take me anywhere.”
“You stopped listening to me after you married her.”
There it was.
Not business.
Not inheritance.
Possession.
Margaret had spent decades calling control love.
Richard had slowly challenged her.
Then I did.
Then Lily’s trust ensured that another woman and another child would have permanent influence over the Carter family.
Margaret could not tolerate it.
Daniel asked about the laboratory technician.
Margaret admitted paying him.
She admitted switching Noah’s sample.
She admitted ordering Jessica to fabricate the messages.
But when Daniel asked about Richard’s cardiologist, she became quiet.
“What did you pay him for?”
“You should ask him.”
“We are.”
Margaret’s breathing changed.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Not every truth helps you.”
The call ended.
Twenty minutes later, police received an unexpected visitor.
Dr. Lawrence Vane.
Richard’s former cardiologist.
He walked into a station with an attorney.
He carried four years of financial records.
And he confessed.
Not to murder.
To blackmail.
Margaret had been paying him because he knew something about Richard’s death.
Richard had not died from a heart attack.
He died after taking a dangerous combination of prescription medications.
The medications had not been prescribed to him.
Someone placed them in his nightly vitamin organizer.
Dr. Vane discovered the irregularity.
Margaret paid him to keep it quiet.
But then he told investigators something even worse.
Margaret had not placed the pills there.
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The person who did was caught on Richard’s home office camera.
And according to Dr. Vane, that video still existed.
