Chapter 60 - THE WOMAN SOFIA SAVED FROM A BASEBALL BAT HAD BEEN KEEPING ONE FINAL SECRET—AND THIS TIME DANIEL COULDN’T PROTECT HER
Margaret Hale was waiting in the garden when Sofia returned.
The elderly woman sat beneath the covered terrace, wrapped in the same black velvet shawl she had worn on the afternoon Victoria Ashford raised a baseball bat over her.
The sight brought Sofia to a stop.
So much had changed since that day.
She had entered Hawthorne Villa as a maid.
She had become a beneficiary of its estate.
She had discovered hidden relatives, lost family members, secret experiments, and decades of carefully buried crimes.
But Margaret had remained a constant presence.
A woman who had comforted her.
A woman who had watched over her children.
A woman Sofia had trusted.
Now Sofia wondered how much of that trust had been built on another lie.
Daniel approached first.
"Margaret."
She looked up.
"Daniel."
"We need to talk."
Margaret's expression changed.
"You found the registry."
Sofia felt her chest tighten.
"You knew?"
Margaret closed her eyes.
"I knew there was another list."
Daniel stared.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I was afraid."
Sofia stepped forward.
"Afraid of what?"
Margaret looked at her.
"That you would discover what I did before I became Eleanor Hawthorne."
The garden fell silent.
Daniel's face hardened.
"You told us you worked as a nurse."
"I did."
"At Meridian."
"Yes."
"And you helped Elena escape."
Margaret nodded.
"But I also helped recruit patients."
Sofia stopped breathing.
Margaret began crying.
"I told their families the treatment was safe."
Daniel looked away.
Margaret continued.
"I believed the doctors. At first, I truly believed we were helping children."
Sofia's voice became cold.
"And when you learned the truth?"
Margaret lowered her head.
"I stayed."
The admission hung between them.
Sofia remembered every frightened child whose name appeared in the Meridian records.
Every family that had spent years searching.
Every person whose medical history had been hidden behind false identities.
"You stayed?"
Margaret nodded.
"I told myself I could protect the patients from inside."
"Did you?"
"Some."
"And the others?"
Margaret began sobbing.
Sofia stepped backward.
There was no answer that could make the silence acceptable.
Daniel spoke quietly.
"You should have told the investigators."
"I know."
"You should have told me."
"I know."
"You should have told Sofia before she trusted you with her children."
Margaret covered her face.
"I know."
Sofia felt tears filling her eyes.
She did not want to hate Margaret.
That was what made the moment unbearable.
The woman before her was not simply a villain.
She was someone who had done good things after doing terrible ones.
Someone who had saved lives while concealing the harm she had helped cause.
And Sofia could no longer allow affection to replace accountability.
"We need the records," she said.
Margaret looked up.
"All of them?"
"Every name. Every authorization. Every transfer."
Margaret nodded slowly.
"Then you need the original archive."
Daniel frowned.
"Where?"
Margaret looked toward the oldest section of the villa.
"The chapel."
Sofia stared.
"There is no chapel."
Margaret smiled sadly.
"Charles built one beneath the original house."
Daniel almost laughed.
"Another hidden room."
"Not a room," Margaret whispered.
"A memorial."
Sofia felt cold.
"To whom?"
Margaret's eyes filled.
"The children who didn't survive."
No one spoke.
Then Margaret reached beneath her shawl.
She removed a brass key.
The same key she had held before the blackout.
Sofia stared at it.
"Why didn't you give us this last night?"
Margaret looked toward the villa.
"Because someone was watching."
Daniel stiffened.
"Who?"
Margaret's voice trembled.
"The person who disabled the power."
Sofia glanced toward the house.
"Do you know who it was?"
Margaret nodded.
Then she whispered a name.
"Claire."
Sofia froze.
"My daughter?"
Margaret shook her head quickly.
"No."
She began crying harder.
"Not your Claire."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Then who?"
Margaret looked at Sofia.
"Claire Hawthorne."
Silence.
Daniel stared.
"I've never heard that name."
Margaret swallowed.
"Because Charles made sure you wouldn't."
Sofia's pulse accelerated.
"Who was she?"
Margaret's answer came barely above a whisper.
May you like
"Charles Hawthorne's first daughter."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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