Chapter 6 - Margaret’s Version
Margaret Bennett lived forty minutes away in a stone house she had occupied since Andrew was fourteen.
She opened the door wearing cream trousers and pearls, as if Saturday morning visitors routinely arrived carrying evidence of twenty-year conspiracies.
Her smile disappeared when she saw Renee.
“Come in.”
Andrew held up the photograph.
“Start talking.”
Margaret looked at it.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she walked to the sitting room.
“Coffee?”
“No.”
“Andrew—”
“Who is Gabriel Shaw?”
Margaret sat.
“A man your father trusted.”
“That’s not what you told me after Dad died.”
“I told you I didn’t know him well.”
“You told me you had never met him.”
Margaret sighed.
“Then I lied.”
Renee remained standing.
“Why were you meeting him?”
Margaret looked at her.
“You look like Evelyn.”
Renee went still.
“You knew my mother?”
“I met her twice.”
“You knew who I was when Andrew introduced us?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“At the wedding.”
Andrew stared.
“You knew before we got married?”
“An hour before.”
Renee whispered, “How?”
“Your maiden name on the marriage license was Renee Walsh. But I saw your mother’s locket.”
Renee touched the small gold pendant at her throat.
“My father gave Evelyn the same one after Mara was born.”
Andrew looked between them.
“You said nothing.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“I was afraid.”
“Of Renee?”
“Of what her name would bring back.”
Renee sat opposite her.
“What happened to my father?”
Margaret looked away.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know what Charles told me.”
“Which was?”
“That Peter had stolen from the company and threatened to expose everyone if Charles reported him.”
“Everyone?”
Margaret pressed her lips together.
“Board members. Contractors. Politicians.”
Andrew’s stomach tightened.
“How much did Dad know?”
“All of it.”
“And you?”
“Not then.”
“Later?”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
Margaret folded her hands.
“A year after Peter died, I found an account statement Charles had hidden. The money wasn’t gone. It had been moved into land deals.”
Renee’s eyes hardened.
“You knew Peter was framed.”
“I knew the public story was false.”
“For twenty-one years.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Margaret looked at Andrew.
“Because Charles told me if I destroyed him, I would destroy the boys too.”
Andrew felt anger rise.
“So you protected us with stolen money.”
“I protected my children.”
“No. You protected Dad.”
“I was weak.”
Renee’s voice trembled.
“My mother spent ten years believing her husband ruined us.”
Margaret looked at her.
“I know.”
“She died believing it.”
“I know.”
Renee stood abruptly.
Andrew touched her arm, but she pulled away.
“Why did you meet Gabriel?”
Margaret looked toward Andrew.
“Because Charles left instructions after his death.”
“What instructions?”
“If anyone ever started looking into the Keene matter, Gabriel was supposed to destroy what remained.”
Renee whispered, “But he didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel had cancer. He decided he didn’t want to die carrying Charles’s secrets.”
Andrew remembered the cough on the recording.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you send Renee the letter about the house?”
Margaret hesitated.
“No.”
“Did Gabriel?”
“I believe so.”
Renee looked at her.
“Why Hawthorne Ridge?”
Margaret’s expression changed.
“Because Peter hid something there.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Andrew laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Margaret stood.
“There is one thing you need to understand. The fraud you’re looking at did not end with your father.”
Julian’s name entered the room without being spoken.
Andrew shook his head.
“Julian was sixteen.”
“Then.”
Margaret walked to a cabinet and removed a sealed envelope.
She handed it to Andrew.
“I found this after Charles died.”
Inside was a list of shell companies.
Most meant nothing to Andrew.
One did.
Northline Civic Partners.
His brother’s flagship investment company.
The date beside it was twelve years ago.
Margaret said, “Julian found your father’s old system.”
Andrew stared at her.
May you like
“And instead of exposing it...”
“He rebuilt it.”
