Chapter 15
The cellar seemed to tilt around me.
Alexander took the ledger from my hands.
“Who wrote this?”
“Not one person.”
He studied the handwriting.
“I recognize the notation.”
“Whose?”
“My father’s secretary.”
“Is she still alive?”
“No. She died five years ago.”
“Convenient.”
“It may not be.”
“You don’t have to defend everyone.”
“I’m not defending them. I’m trying to understand how this happened.”
“That’s what I tried to do ten years ago.”
He looked at me.
“I know.”
The words were nearly a whisper.
From above us came the faint sound of footsteps.
Alexander closed the ledger.
Someone was walking through the wine cellar passage.
He moved toward the door, but I touched his arm.
“Wait.”
We listened.
The footsteps stopped.
A moment later, a voice spoke from the other side.
“Alexander?”
Margaret.
He opened the door.
She stood in the passage with Nora beside her. Both looked worried.
“Why did you come down here?” Alexander asked.
Margaret’s gaze fell to the ledger.
“Because I knew you would find it.”
I stepped forward.
“You knew?”
She gripped her cane with both hands.
“I knew there was a ledger. I didn’t know whether it still existed.”
“Your initials are in it.”
Her face tightened.
“I signed a document.”
“What document?”
“An agreement prepared by Elena. It said that if you were removed from the estate, Ethan would remain in a stable household until the accusations were resolved.”
“They were never resolved.”
“I know.”
“Did you know the agreement would separate me from my son?”
“I was told it would be temporary.”
“Who told you?”
Margaret looked at Alexander.
“Your father.”
He stared at her.
“My father was dead by the time the accusations were made.”
“He had already set everything in motion.”
Alexander turned away.
Margaret’s voice shook.
“He told me you were becoming reckless. That you were neglecting the company and allowing Claire to influence decisions that affected the family. He said Ethan needed protection from scandal.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I believed that I had failed you as a mother. I believed that if I opposed him, I would lose whatever influence I still had.”
“That was not your decision to make,” I said.
“No,” she replied. “It wasn’t.”
The honesty left me without a ready response.
Margaret approached slowly.
“I did not know the evidence was false. I did not know Rebecca had been pressured. I did not know your letters were being returned.”