Chapter 20 - Margot finally stops managing optics
Margot resisted longest.
She called me.
“I want to fix the public situation.”
“There is no public situation I care about.”
“Guests are speculating.”
“Let them.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
Then she said:
“People think Vivian took Luke’s child from his mother.”
I went quiet.
“Did she?”
Margot exhaled.
“That isn’t fair.”
“Then stop trying to solve the headline and tell me what you think happened.”
Silence.
A week later, Margot did something useful.
She provided her own emails from the first guardianship extension.
Not stolen.
Her account.
Her messages.
One from Margot to Vivian:
Elena has recovered. Why are we extending?
Vivian:
Because she is not ready for the consequences of doing this alone.
Margot:
Has she said that?
Vivian:
She doesn’t understand what she is asking for.
That sentence mattered.
Not legally decisive.
Morally precise.
Vivian had replaced my judgment with hers.
Margot told me:
“I should have pushed.”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
No defense.
Then:
May you like
“I’m sorry.”
I believed her more because she did not ask what forgiveness would look like.
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