“Maybe she really does need more help, Ness.”

“She might,” I said. “But she’s not moving into our house because she doesn’t like the alternatives.”

Margaret’s indifference to the accusation kept troubling me.

I was convinced something remained hidden.

“I need to ask her one more thing,” I told Roy. “Wait here.”

I slipped back through the unlocked door.

Before reaching the front room, I heard Margaret speaking.

But her voice was almost unrecognizable.

The frail elderly woman had disappeared. This voice was sharp, furious, and commanding.

“I told you to stay away until I sorted this out.”

I froze with one hand against the wall.

“Of course he believed Vanessa. You were supposed to make her suspicious, not march into her office and announce you were carrying his child!”

My heart pounded so loudly I feared she’d hear it.

I pulled out my phone and started recording.