“You nearly ruined everything. You were supposed to make Vanessa leave Roy, not confront her at work. If she’d pushed for a paternity test, the whole plan would’ve blown up right then.”
She paused.
“I promised to help you and your baby until you got back on your feet. But you have to let me handle my son.”
I stood motionless in the dim hallway, staring at a framed photograph of Roy at eight years old, smiling with a missing tooth.
Everything suddenly became clear.
Margaret wasn’t being exploited.
She was directing the entire scheme.
I quietly backed away and returned to Roy.
He was waiting beside the car.
One look at my face, and his smile vanished.
“What happened?”
I repeated everything I’d overheard as accurately as possible.
He listened without blinking.
“No,” he said. “My mother wouldn’t do that.”
“I didn’t want to believe it either.”
