Chapter 13 - Beatrice’s Final Bargain
Beatrice requested a private meeting.
She offered to testify against Margaret in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Nellie did not attend.
“I’ve spent enough time in rooms where Beatrice controls the truth,” she said.
Alistair and Samuel met Beatrice inside the detention facility with federal prosecutors observing through glass.
Beatrice looked smaller without the estate, the attorneys and the carefully arranged lighting that had always surrounded her.
She still sat perfectly straight.
Samuel entered first.
Beatrice examined his face.
“You look like Alistair.”
“I look like both of my parents.”
The correction landed exactly as Samuel intended.
Alistair sat across from his mother.
“Tell us about Baby B.”
Beatrice’s composure cracked.
“Where did you hear that designation?”
“Wintermere House.”
“You found the ledger.”
“We found enough.”
Beatrice looked toward the observation glass.
“Margaret will kill anyone who can connect her to the program.”
“Did she order the failure at Site 14?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Nellie was on the platform?”
Beatrice remained silent.
Alistair leaned forward.
“Did you know?”
“I believed Conrad had removed her.”
“But when you saw Nellie injured, you used the situation.”
“I prevented the scandal from destroying you.”
“You stole Sawyer.”
“I placed him with good people.”
“You told his mother he was dead.”
Beatrice looked at Samuel.
“The Reeds loved you.”
“They did. That does not forgive how I reached them.”
“No,” Beatrice said quietly. “It does not.”
For the first time, she sounded tired rather than calculating.
Alistair asked again.
“What happened to the second baby?”
Beatrice glanced toward the observation room.
“I want the agreement signed first.”
The prosecutor activated the microphone.
“Your cooperation must be verified before any recommendation is considered.”
Beatrice smiled bitterly.
“Even now, everyone believes procedure protects them.”
Samuel placed the Baby B bracelet on the table.
“My sister may be alive.”
Beatrice stared at it.
“She was alive when she left the hospital.”
“Who took her?”
“Margaret.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Margaret kept information divided. Halden managed medical records. Peter handled transfers. I controlled Alistair and the company.”
Samuel’s jaw tightened.
“You say that as if controlling people was an office assignment.”
“In our family, it was.”
Alistair felt no shock.
Only exhaustion.
“Why were there twins missing from the delivery report?”
“Margaret said one child would be easier to hide if Nellie believed she had delivered only one.”
“And you agreed?”
“I had already crossed the line when I intercepted the pregnancy letter. Every decision afterward was made to protect the one before it.”
“That is how you explain twenty-five years?”
“That is how power works, Alistair. It does not ask you to become a monster in one decision. It asks for one necessary lie at a time.”
Samuel pushed the bracelet closer to her.
“Her name.”
“Nellie never named her.”
“What did Margaret call her?”
Beatrice closed her eyes.
“Evelyn.”
Alistair recognized the name.
It was Beatrice’s middle name.
“Why?”
“Margaret enjoyed reminding me that the child existed because of my first lie.”
Beatrice revealed that Baby B had been transferred to a couple connected to Wintermere Holdings.
When the couple attempted to expose the program, their identities were erased from public records.
Margaret recovered the child.
After that, even Beatrice was denied access to the file.
“Margaret believed the girl would be more useful than Sawyer,” Beatrice said.
“How?” Samuel asked.
“The Vale trust recognizes the firstborn child in the case of multiple births.”
Alistair looked toward the bracelet.
Baby B did not necessarily mean second-born. It was only a hospital designation.
“If Evelyn was born first,” he said, “she may control the family trust.”
Beatrice nodded.
“That is why Margaret kept her.”
The door opened.
Lena entered with an urgent expression.
“Margaret has released a video.”
The recording showed Margaret standing inside an unknown room.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Alistair, you believe your mother destroyed your family. In truth, Beatrice merely delayed the plan.”
Margaret held up a document bearing Nellie’s signature.
Nellie had never seen it.
“The Vale trust will transfer at midnight in seventy-two hours,” Margaret continued. “When it does, your daughter will inherit everything you surrendered.”
Samuel leaned toward the screen.
May you like
Margaret smiled.
“But only if she remains alive long enough to sign.”
