Chapter 6 - The Maid With Forty Million Dollars of DebtEmily laughed.
She couldn't help it.
Seven buildings.
Forty million dollars in debt.
Both statements felt equally ridiculous to someone who had checked her bank account that morning and found $1,842.
Adrian watched her.
“Emily?”
She looked at him.
“Do rich families always hide their crimes inside paperwork this complicated?”
Margaret's face tightened.
Adrian did not defend her.
“The seven properties were transferred to a holding company created for your mother.”
Emily looked at Margaret.
“And you blocked it.”
“Yes.”
“At least you're honest now.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. You still don't understand.”
Emily's eyes hardened.
“Then explain it without using the words family, reputation, legacy, or protection.”
Margaret fell silent.
Adrian almost smiled.
Only briefly.
Margaret noticed.
“This is not amusing.”
“No,” Emily said. “It isn't.”
She pointed toward the floor.
“I spent the last year cleaning a penthouse my mother was supposed to own.”
“I worked overtime you didn't pay.”
“You deducted money from my paycheck for things I didn't break.”
“And now I learn someone used my name to create millions in debt.”
Margaret replied:
“I didn't create the debt.”
Emily stared at her.
“Then who did?”
No answer.
Adrian looked at the secondary suited man.
The man remained near the doorway.
Silent.
Too silent.
Adrian's attention returned to his mother.
“How long have you known?”
Margaret hesitated.
“About the properties?”
“Yes.”
“Twelve years.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Twelve years.
Twelve years of rent.
Bills.
Shifts.
Her mother's illness.
Every grocery item returned to the shelf because it cost too much.
Every doctor visit delayed.
Every college application abandoned.
Somewhere during all of it, seven Manhattan properties existed under paperwork connected to Emily's family.
The injustice was almost impossible to measure.
She opened her eyes.
“You watched my mother die poor.”
Margaret's face changed.
“I didn't know she was sick.”
“You didn't care enough to know.”
Silence.
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Emily continued.
“And you hired me.”
Adrian turned sharply.
“What?”
Emily looked at Margaret.
“You knew who I was when I applied.”
Margaret did not deny it.
Adrian stepped closer to his mother.
“You hired her personally?”
Margaret answered:
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know what kind of woman Elizabeth had raised.”
Emily stared at her.
“You made me clean your toilets to test my character?”
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
“I needed to know whether you hated us.”
Emily laughed again.
This time the sound was painful.
“You destroyed my mother's reputation.”
“You took her property.”
“You let me grow up poor.”
“And you were afraid I might be unfair to you?”
Margaret had no answer.
Adrian looked disgusted.
Then Emily asked the question Margaret clearly feared most.
“What exactly did my mother know about this family?”
Margaret looked toward the skyline.
Her teacup trembled.
“She knew the debt wasn't created to steal the properties.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“Then why?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“To hide where the money really went.”
Emily stared at her.
“Where did it go?”
May you like
Margaret opened her eyes.
“To someone Adrian believed had been dead for eleven years.”
