Chapter 5 - Daniel’s Desperate Plea to Margaret
The rain poured down heavily on Wednesday evening.
Beating against the glass front doors of my home.
A frantic pounding echoed through the hallway.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
My housekeeper started to walk toward the door,
but I raised my hand.
I’ll get it.
I walked slowly,
my footsteps echoing on the polished floor.
I unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open.
Standing in the pouring rain,
soaked to the skin,
was Daniel.
His expensive navy suit ruined,
his hair plastered to his forehead,
his eyes wide with sheer desperation.
Margaret,
he gasped,
stumbling forward.
Please.
You have to help me.
I crossed my arms,
standing firmly in the doorway.
Blocking his entrance.
Help you with what,
Daniel?
They’re locking me out,
he cried,
his voice cracking.
The board suspended me.
The banks froze my assets.
Vanessa’s lawyers are threatening me too.
It’s all falling apart.
You did this to yourself,
I replied evenly.
No,
Claire did this!
He shouted,
losing his temper for a second before catching himself.
I mean...
Claire misunderstood.
We were just friends.
Vanessa meant nothing.
At your wife’s funeral,
Daniel,
you walked down the aisle laughing,
holding another woman’s hand,
and she whispered to me that she had won,
I said,
every word cutting like glass.
And now you come to me
asking for mercy?
He dropped to his knees on the porch.
Right in the mud.
Please,
Margaret.
For the nine years I called you Mom.
For Claire’s memory.
I looked down at him.
With absolute pity.
You killed her heart long before her illness did,
I whispered.
And now,
you reap what you sow.
May you like
I closed the heavy wooden door in his face.
Locking it securely behind him.
