Chapter 10 - “Let Me See My Granddaughter”
Rachel did not open the door fully.
Margaret stood on the porch.
Her pearl necklace was gone.
Her face looked tired.
“I want to see Lily.”
Rachel stared.
“You mean the child you said wasn’t your granddaughter?”
Margaret flinched.
“I was angry.”
“You committed fraud.”
“I made mistakes.”
“You used Noah’s DNA.”
“I was trying to protect the family.”
Rachel almost closed the door.
Margaret pushed one hand against it.
“Please.”
That word surprised Rachel.
Margaret almost never said it.
“Daniel won’t speak to me.”
“He has reasons.”
“Peter won’t either.”
“He has more.”
Margaret’s eyes glistened.
“I’m alone.”
Rachel’s voice stayed calm.
“Being lonely is not the same thing as being sorry.”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
There she was.
The old Margaret.
“You think you’ve won?”
“I never wanted a competition.”
“You took my sons.”
“No. Your choices did.”
Margaret looked past Rachel.
Lily was playing on the living-room rug.
The moment she saw Margaret, she crawled behind the sofa.
Rachel noticed.
That decided everything.
“No.”
Margaret looked back.
“What?”
“You’re not seeing her.”
“I’m her grandmother.”
“Being related to a child does not give you the right to frighten her.”
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“You’re keeping family from me.”
Rachel almost laughed.
“You spent a year insisting she wasn’t family.”
Margaret walked away furious.
Two weeks later, she filed for grandparent visitation.
Rachel was stunned.
Daniel wasn’t.
“This is what she does.”
The petition accused Rachel of alienating Lily from the Whitmore family.
It omitted the forged documents.
The fake DNA test.
The fraud investigation.
Samuel smiled when he read it.
“She should not have done this.”
“Why?”
“Because now she has opened the door to discovery.”
Margaret wanted a court to examine whether Rachel was unfairly denying access.
The court would therefore examine why.
Samuel subpoenaed everything.
Margaret’s messages.
Her financial records.
Her communications with laboratories.
Her statements about Lily.
Then one message appeared.
It had been sent to Margaret’s housekeeper six weeks before the swing incident.
Keep Lily away from Noah’s birthday photographs. Once the trust issue is fixed, Rachel and the baby won’t be around much longer.
Rachel stared at the final words.
“What does that mean?”
Samuel didn’t know.
Then the housekeeper agreed to testify.
May you like
Her name was Carla.
And she had heard Margaret explain exactly what “won’t be around much longer” meant.
