Chapter 7 - The Night the Door Stayed Closed
For a moment nobody moved.
Claire saw Mara standing beside me and immediately understood that something had changed.
“You,” she said.
Mara stood straighter.
“Hello, Claire.”
Emmett came around the car, his tie undone and his face drawn.
“I brought her because she insisted on seeing Margot,” he explained.
“She said she needed to apologize.”
I stepped between Claire and the front door.
“Margot is asleep,” I said.
“And an apology can wait until she's ready to hear it.”
Claire tried to smile.
“Arthur, please don't make this more difficult.”
“I haven't made any of this difficult.”
I held up the folder.
“Tell us about these.”
Her expression flashed with recognition before she schooled it into confusion.
“I have no idea what those are.”
Mara spoke calmly.
“Drafts from your office, created before you dismissed me.”
“You stole confidential client records.”
“No,” Mara replied.
“I kept copies of emails sent to my own account, and I came here because the child's name was on them.”
Emmett took the folder and read the first page.
I watched the muscles in his face tighten.
“Why does this say Phoebe agreed?” he asked.
Claire's eyes moved toward Vivian's car parked behind them.
I hadn't noticed it arrive.
Vivian emerged, followed by Claire's father, Richard.
“This is enough,” Vivian announced.
“My daughter has been harassed all night.”
Emmett turned toward her.
“Did you know about this?”
Vivian glanced at the document.
“It's a contingency plan.”
“For what?”
“For stability,” she replied.
“She can't keep living in a house where everyone worships a photograph.”
Claire gave her mother a warning look, but the words were already spoken.
Emmett's voice shook.
“Phoebe was Margot's mother.”
“And she always will be.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Son, maybe everyone should sleep on this.”
Emmett looked at him.
“Don't call me son while you stand here helping them push my daughter away.”
The silence that followed belonged entirely to Emmett.
He told Claire he would not be returning to their home with her that night.
She asked whether he was ending the marriage before it had properly begun.
He said he was protecting his daughter while he learned the truth.
As Vivian drove away with Claire, the bride rolled down her window.
“You think Arthur's telling you everything?” she asked Emmett.
May you like
“Ask him what he did with Phoebe's last letter.”
