Chapter 10 - MARGARET’S DEAL
Margaret did not become a prosecution hero.
She negotiated because the evidence against her was strong.
Her agreement required truthful cooperation.
Prosecutors independently evaluated what she provided.
She admitted helping Brandon establish entities used to conceal transfers.
She admitted knowing some invoices did not represent real services.
She admitted lying to investigators after the fall.
Then came the question everyone cared about.
“Did you know Brandon intended to push Emma?”
Margaret answered:
“No.”
“Did you tell him to?”
“No.”
“What did ‘finish this’ mean?”
“Take the phone. End the argument. Make her stop threatening to expose us.”
“Did you see him push her?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
“Did you help her?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Margaret cried.
Not beautifully.
Not sympathetically.
She simply broke.
“Because I thought if she lived, everything was over.”
That sentence told me more about Margaret than any villain speech could.
I had been lying broken on stone.
Her first concern had been losing money.
May you like
Her agreement did not erase that.
It merely placed it on the record.
