Chapter 5
Margaret requested a private meeting with Daniel.
Claire refused to attend.
This was not because she trusted Margaret.
It was because she wanted Daniel to decide whether he could hear his mother without using Claire as emotional cover.
Daniel brought Thomas instead.
Margaret hated that.
“You brought a lawyer to speak with your mother?”
Daniel sat across from her in Thomas’s conference room.
“You brought one to stop Sophie’s DNA filing.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
“That was different.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire is trying to humiliate this family.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She proved Sophie is my daughter.”
“She should never have needed to.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“You demanded it.”
Margaret looked away.
He placed the old fertility invoice on the table.
Her face changed.
Not dramatically.
Enough.
“What is this?”
“You know what it is.”
“It was thirty-eight years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Your father and I had difficulty conceiving.”
“Did you use donor sperm?”
Margaret looked at Thomas.
“This is obscene.”
Daniel remained calm.
“Did you?”
“I had treatment.”
“That was not the question.”
She stood.
Daniel did not.
Margaret’s anger grew.
“You are allowing Claire to poison you against your own family because of one ugly birthday.”
Daniel’s voice became quieter.
“You put my daughter in a chain.”
“She was impossible.”
“She was five.”
“You do not understand what Claire was about to do.”
There it was.
Daniel looked up.
“What was Claire about to do?”
Margaret realized the mistake immediately.
“Nothing.”
“You just said—”
“I’m upset.”
“What was Claire about to do?”
Margaret grabbed her handbag.
“This meeting is over.”
Daniel did not stop her.
Thomas waited until the door closed.
Then:
“She knew about the envelope before Claire showed it.”
Daniel stared.
“How?”
“She said what Claire ‘was about to do.’”
Daniel replayed the birthday in his head.
Margaret had accused Sophie.
Claire produced the envelope.
Margaret panicked.
But maybe Margaret had known Claire had ordered the test before the party.
Daniel called the lab.
The lab confirmed someone from the family trust administrator’s office had requested status updates twice before the result was released.
The requests came from Margaret’s longtime assistant.
Margaret had been monitoring the test.
That explained why she chose the birthday to escalate.
The result had been completed that morning.
Margaret knew a report existed.
She did not know the contents.
She knew Claire might bring it.
And apparently she feared what would follow if Sophie was confirmed as Daniel’s daughter.
The chain incident now looked even worse.
Not random cruelty.
May you like
Timing.
Margaret had wanted Claire and Sophie gone from the party before Claire could force the family to confront the DNA result.
