Chapter 2 - He Walked Out With Her
“Get her a towel.”
Daniel’s voice was low.
No one moved quickly enough.
He crossed the lawn himself, removed his suit jacket, and placed it around Margaret’s shoulders.
“Mom, what happened?”
Margaret looked at Vivian.
Daniel followed her gaze.
The green hose was still in Vivian’s hand.
His expression changed.
“Vivian?”
She immediately dropped it.
“She wouldn’t leave.”
Daniel stared at her.
“So you sprayed her?”
“She wouldn’t tell me who she was.”
“I did,” Margaret said.
Vivian looked sharply at her.
“You said your name after you were already—”
“Stop.”
Daniel rarely raised his voice.
He did not need to now.
The word landed heavily.
Vivian glanced at the guests.
Everyone was watching.
Her humiliation began exactly where Margaret’s had ended.
“Daniel, can we go inside?”
“No.”
“We need to talk privately.”
“We will.”
His eyes moved to Margaret’s soaked clothes.
“After I take my mother somewhere warm.”
Vivian’s father approached from the terrace.
Gordon Cross was sixty-three, silver-haired, immaculately dressed, and famous in Northern Virginia business circles for never appearing surprised.
Even now, his expression remained controlled.
“Daniel,” Gordon said quietly, “the guests are concerned.”
Daniel looked at him.
“My mother was just sprayed with a garden hose.”
“I can see that.”
“Then they should be concerned.”
Gordon lowered his voice.
“There is an announcement scheduled in twenty minutes.”
“Cancel it.”
Vivian’s face tightened.
“Daniel.”
He turned toward her.
“What?”
“Our engagement announcement.”
“I know what announcement you mean.”
“You’re canceling it because of this?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Daniel, I didn’t come here to interfere with your engagement.”
Vivian seized on that.
“Then why did you come?”
Margaret looked at the cream tote.
“To stop him from signing something.”
Gordon’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Margaret saw it.
So did Daniel.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Margaret looked at her son.
“The merger agreement.”
Gordon stepped forward.
“This is not the place.”
“No,” Margaret replied. “It isn’t.”
She shifted beneath Daniel’s jacket.
“That’s why I called Daniel four times this week.”
Daniel frowned.
“I didn’t get four calls.”
“I left messages.”
Vivian said, “Your assistant probably filtered them.”
Daniel looked at her.
“My assistant doesn’t filter calls from my mother.”
Vivian’s face stiffened.
Margaret glanced between them.
Daniel seemed to understand there were suddenly several conversations happening at once.
“Mom, come inside.”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
Vivian moved closer.
“Daniel, you cannot walk out now.”
He looked at the woman beside him.
Water dripped from Margaret’s skirt onto his expensive shoes.
“I can.”
“What about the board members?”
“They’ll survive.”
“The press?”
“They’ll survive too.”
“And us?”
That stopped him.
For several seconds they stared at each other.
Vivian’s face finally lost its confidence.
“You’re really leaving.”
“My mother is soaked.”
“She threatened me.”
Margaret’s eyes widened.
“I told you that you would regret humiliating me.”
“That is a threat.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“No, Vivian. What you did was humiliation.”
Gordon stepped between them verbally before the argument could worsen.
“Everyone is emotional.”
Margaret gave him a cold look.
“Hello, Gordon.”
Daniel turned.
“You two know each other?”
Gordon did not answer immediately.
Margaret did.
“For a very long time.”
That sentence changed the air again.
Daniel looked at his future father-in-law.
“From where?”
Margaret tightened her grip on the tote.
“Your father.”
Daniel became still.
His father, James Bennett, had been dead for eight years.
“Mom…”
“Not here.”
This time Daniel agreed instantly.
He guided her toward the driveway.
Vivian followed them several steps.
“Daniel!”
He stopped but did not turn fully around.
She tried to control her voice.
“Are you coming back?”
Daniel looked over his shoulder.
“I don’t know.”
Then he left.
A hundred guests watched the heir to Bennett Properties escort a dripping elderly woman away from his own engagement party.
Margaret climbed into Daniel’s car.
He turned the heater on despite the warm afternoon.
For the first mile, neither spoke.
Finally Daniel said, “Why didn’t you tell Vivian who you were?”
“I did.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Why are you here?”
Margaret placed the cream tote on her lap.
“Because tonight you were supposed to sign away something your father never actually owned.”
Daniel glanced at her.
“What?”
“Alderwick.”
He almost laughed.
“The estate?”
“Yes.”
“Mom, the company trust owns Alderwick.”
“No.”
She reached inside the tote.
“My family does.”
Daniel slowed the car.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
She removed a plastic document sleeve protected from the water.
Inside was a forty-year-old agreement bearing three signatures.
One belonged to Daniel’s father.
One to Gordon Cross.
And one to Margaret.
Daniel stared.
His mother’s name appeared beside a figure:
$1,200,000 CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION.
Dated 1993.
Daniel looked at her.
“You put money into Bennett Properties?”
Margaret’s answer was quiet.
“I saved it.”
May you like
And Daniel realized his entire understanding of his family’s fortune might have begun with a lie.
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