Chapter 7 - the shadow in the foyer
When Margaret returned home at six o'clock, Harrison was waiting in the foyer. He was pacing back and forth across the rug, his blue dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his luxury watch catching the dim evening light.
As the front door closed, Harrison spun around, his face a mixture of anxiety and frustration.
"Mom! Sloan just called me crying!" Harrison yelled, stepping toward her. "She said you came to her store and humiliated her in front of her clients!"
Margaret stood near the entryway coat rack, calmly setting her handbag on the console table. She looked at her son—tall, handsome, but so utterly hollowed out by his own passivity.
"Did she tell you why I was there, Harrison?" Margaret asked gently.
Harrison hesitated, his eyes shifting nervously to the floor. "She said... she said you found out about the lease. But Mom, we were going to pay you back! Once the boutique turned a profit—"
"You stole thirty thousand dollars from my emergency savings before you even moved into this house," Margaret interrupted, her voice deep, steady, and terrifyingly calm. "You lied to my face for eleven months. You sat at my birthday table yesterday and watched her ruin my cake, and you said nothing because you were afraid she would leave you."
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Harrison swallowed hard, his posture collapsing as if all the air had been drained from his chest. "Mom... I love her. She said if I didn't help her launch the store, she’d file for divorce..."
"Then you traded your mother’s security for a woman’s approval," Margaret said quietly. "And that is a bargain you will have to pay for yourself."
