Chapter 4
Margaret tried to run.
Not far.
Just toward the staircase.
One of Adrian’s security men stepped into the hallway.
He did not touch her.
He did not have to.
Margaret froze.
Daniel looked at her like his childhood was collapsing piece by piece.
“Tell me you didn’t know.”
She lifted her chin.
“I protected this family.”
The words hit me like ice.
Protected.
From me?
From a baby?
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“Mrs. Harris, twenty-five years ago Richard Vale’s newborn daughter disappeared from a hospital nursery. A woman connected to the hospital later deposited an infant at a church in Columbus with a false note claiming abandonment.”
My hands shook around the locket.
“My parents found me there.”
Adrian nodded.
“Your adoptive parents reported it properly. They were told there was no missing child match. We now believe records were altered.”
Daniel whispered, “By Mom?”
Margaret snapped, “I did what had to be done.”
The silence after that was terrible.
Daniel stepped away from her.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret’s face twisted.
“You have no idea what Richard Vale was like then. Arrogant. Cold. He destroyed people. He destroyed your father.”
Adrian said, “Mr. Vale purchased a failing company your husband had already bankrupted.”
“He humiliated us,” Margaret hissed.
“So you stole his child?” I asked.
She looked at me with hatred.
“You were supposed to disappear into some poor little life and stay there.”
My breath left me.
Daniel covered his mouth.
Margaret kept going, because once cruelty breaks open, it wants to be heard.
“Then my idiot son brought you home like a stray. I saw that locket the first week. I knew. And I thought, no. Not in my house. Not Richard Vale’s blood sitting at my table.”
I felt dizzy.
“You hated me because you knew who I was?”
“I hated you because everything comes back to him.”
Daniel shouted, “She was a baby!”
Margaret flinched.
I had never heard him shout at her.
Not once.
He turned to Adrian.
“Call the police.”
Margaret’s eyes widened.
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“You are not my mother right now.”
May you like
His voice broke.
“You are the woman who stole my wife’s life.”
