Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO BURIED HER
Margaret closed the door behind her.
She looked at Daniel.
Then Emily.
Then Sophie.
Her shoulders collapsed.
“This has gone too far.”
Daniel laughed in disbelief.
“Too far?”
“You kept my wife locked in a house for three years.”
“I saved her life.”
Emily’s eyes burned.
“You stole my life.”
Margaret looked at her.
“You were going to destroy this family.”
“By exposing theft?”
“By destroying the company.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“The company is not the family.”
Margaret flinched.
He pointed at Sophie.
“That is my family.”
Then at Emily.
“And she is my family.”
Ethan snapped:
“Mom, don’t listen to him.”
Margaret looked at her older son.
Something in her expression changed.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“Put the key down.”
He stared at her.
“No.”
“Give it to Daniel.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You don’t get to change sides now.”
Margaret looked at her.
“I never agreed to kidnapping Sophie.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You agreed to everything else.”
Silence.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What else?”
Margaret whispered:
“I paid Dr. Hale.”
Emily stared at her.
“To keep me drugged.”
“At first.”
Daniel felt sick.
Margaret continued.
“I believed Ethan when he told me Emily had been stealing company files.”
Ethan shouted:
“She was!”
“No,” Margaret said.
“I know that now.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What are you doing?”
“Stopping this.”
Vanessa raised the gun toward Margaret.
“Then you’re useless.”
Daniel moved before she could react.
He knocked Vanessa’s arm upward.
The gun fired.
The bullet tore into the ceiling.
Sophie screamed.
Emily pulled her behind the couch.
Daniel grabbed Vanessa’s wrist.
They struggled.
Ethan lunged forward.
Margaret stepped between them.
“Ethan, stop!”
He shoved her.
Margaret hit the floor.
Daniel slammed Vanessa’s hand against the wall.
The gun dropped.
Emily kicked it away.
Ethan ran for the front door.
It flew open before he reached it.
Aaron Blake stood there with two officers.
“Police!”
Ethan stopped.
Vanessa froze.
Daniel breathed hard.
For one second, he thought it was over.
Then Ethan grabbed Margaret and pulled something from his jacket.
A knife.
He pressed it against his mother’s throat.
“Back up!”
Margaret gasped.
“Ethan.”
“Shut up.”
Daniel stared at the brother he had spent forty-one years trusting.
“Let her go.”
“You always get everything.”
“This isn’t about me anymore.”
“It was always about you!”
Police raised their weapons.
Aaron shouted:
“Drop the knife!”
Ethan backed toward the kitchen with Margaret.
Emily held Sophie.
Vanessa was handcuffed on the floor.
Daniel followed slowly.
“Ethan.”
“Stay back.”
“Mom protected you.”
Margaret started crying.
“She protected you from prison.”
“Daniel, stop.”
He kept moving.
“She lied to me for three years because of you.”
“Stop talking!”
“She destroyed Emily because she thought she was saving you.”
Ethan’s hand shook.
Margaret whispered:
“He’s right.”
Ethan froze.
She looked at him.
“I lost my son a long time ago.”
His face crumpled.
“You chose him too.”
“No.”
“I chose fear.”
“And I was wrong.”
Ethan’s eyes filled with rage.
He tightened his grip.
Then Sophie’s tiny voice came from the living room.
“Grandma?”
Everyone stopped.
Sophie peeked around Emily’s side.
“Don’t hurt Grandma.”
Ethan stared at the child.
For one second, something human crossed his face.
Then police sirens screamed outside.
Ethan shoved Margaret away and ran through the kitchen.
A rear door slammed.
Aaron yelled:
“Back exit!”
Officers chased him into the darkness.
Daniel helped Margaret stand.
Emily looked toward the window.
Headlights suddenly flared outside.
A vehicle roared to life.
Aaron ran toward the street.
Daniel followed.
Ethan’s SUV shot down the driveway.
And sitting in the passenger seat was someone Daniel had never seen before.
A gray-haired man.
Margaret saw him too.
Her face drained of color.
Daniel looked at her.
“Who is that?”
Margaret whispered:
“Your father.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
May you like
His father had supposedly been dead for eleven years.
---
