Chapter 7 - WHY MARGARET DID IT
Nobody accepted Margaret’s explanation at first.
“I wasn’t going to drop him.”
Michael stared at her after police arrived.
“That is your defense?”
“I held him securely.”
“He was upside down.”
“For seconds.”
Emily almost lunged toward her.
The responding officer intervened verbally.
Noah had been examined.
Unharmed.
Good.
Margaret said:
“I needed Emily to stop lying.”
Michael looked at Emily.
Then back at his mother.
“Using my baby?”
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“Not your baby.”
Michael flinched.
Even after the reveal.
Even after anger.
He was still holding Noah.
Margaret noticed.
That made her crueler.
“You see? This is exactly the problem.”
Michael stared.
“What problem?”
“You’re reacting emotionally.”
“He is eight months old.”
“He isn’t yours.”
Michael’s voice went quiet.
“I heard you.”
Margaret continued:
“The family trust should not be rewritten around a child who has no Carter blood.”
There it was.
Not safety.
Inheritance.
Lineage.
Control.
Michael looked at her.
“You held an infant upside down over estate documents?”
“No.”
Margaret snapped.
“I did it because she kept lying to you.”
Both motives existed.
Moral outrage.
And bloodline obsession.
Then Michael said:
“You could have told me.”
Margaret looked at Emily.
“So could she.”
That was true.
May you like
And because it was true, it made Margaret believe everything else she did was justified.
It was not.
