Chapter 18 Margo #2
Margo nodded and turned back to get coffee cups as Willa instructed them where everything was.
The kitchen and dining room gradually filled with movement again, but this time it felt less like normal breakfast chores and more like people taking their places before judgment was passed.
Coffee was poured. Plates and cutlery appeared.
Margo and Willa worked side by side at the stove with a speed born of long friendship and many family breakfasts.
Bacon crackled. Eggs were beaten. Bread went in the toaster.
Behind them, chairs scraped softly in the dining room, and low voices rose and fell.
Margo kept her eyes on the pan. “Your mother and Holt look really mad,” she said under her breath.
“Yes.” Willa gave a small, humorless smile. “My mother is seething.”
“Yup, I got that.” Margo nodded.
“When she gets that still.” Willa nudged the bacon over and lowered her voice. “The set jaw. The eyes that don’t wander. The voice that goes even instead of sharp. Trust me, she’s holding back a volcanic eruption.”
“That’s comforting.” Margo winced.
“It wasn’t meant to be.” Willa transferred the bacon to a serving platter.
“Harvey was right. We should’ve told them from the start.” Margo slid scrambled eggs onto another plate.
“We did tell them we were looking into the old case,” Willa reasoned.
“Yes, but we told them the version that made us sound less reckless.” Margo placed the pan back on the cooker.
Willa didn't argue, which was answer enough.
Margo glanced toward the dining room.
Holt had already taken the head of the table without seeming to mean to.
June sat at his right. Harvey, looking deeply uneasy, had ended up on Holt’s left.
Rad sat opposite his father, at the other end of the long table.
His shoulders were tight, arms folded. Ace had taken the seat beside Rad.
There was a place mat beside him, presumably for Willa, and another empty one on Rad’s other side that Margo presumed was for her.
There was one empty place between June and where Willa would sit.
There were two between where Margo would sit and Harvey.
The line of the table looked almost formal now, like a hearing disguised as breakfast with the interrogators at the far end.
Margo’s nerves tightened.
“We also left out,” she whispered, leaning in toward Willa, “that we deliberately invited Rad to breakfast and made our case to him before asking for help.”
“Yes, but he wanted to help,” Willa whispered back.
“That’s not the point.” Margo’s eyes held Willa’s.
“You know, there was more than one reason we deliberately targeted Rad.” She glanced pointedly to where June and Holt’s heads were close together as they quietly discussed something, and that’s when Margo noticed June had placed a notepad and pen beside her.
“You know that’s going to come out, right?
” She looked at her best friend, worry creasing her brow.
“We’re going to be in double trouble with them.
Especially now that we know their history. ”
“Margo, all of this started before we knew the full history between my mother and Holt.” Willa grabbed the platter with the bacon on harder than she intended to and nearly dropped a few pieces.
“That doesn’t change the fact that we nudged them into working together.” Margo picked up the eggs.
“Whatever we do,” Willa’s eyes flicked toward the table and then back, “we absolutely cannot bring that part up.”
Margo stared at her.
“You think my mother and Holt are angry now?” Willa asked quietly. “Wait until they know what else we’ve been meddling in.”
Margo made a face. “We’re in a lot of trouble, aren’t we?”
“Yes.” Willa nodded and sighed resignedly. “But they’re still our best chance right now, and I think they’re angry enough with us without bringing that up or hinting about it.”
“I know,” Margo agreed. “Besides, we don’t want the wrath of you know who, as June’s and Holt's is bad enough.”
“One storm at a time, my dear friend,” Margo said, glancing at the table. “Let’s get through this one first.”
They carried the food through.
As Margo reached the table and set down the bacon, there was a knock at the front door.
Every person in the room looked up.
Margo froze.
“You might want to set another place.” June turned her head slightly toward her.
The words landed oddly.
“Oh?” Margo blinked.
Another knock echoed down the hall.
“I’ll get it,” Willa said quickly.
“No,” Holt said, already rising. “I’ll get this one.”
That was when the cold feeling truly began.
It moved up Margo’s spine in a slow, dreadful line, not because she knew exactly who was at the door but because some instinct in her recognized the shape of this morning. Someone had already gotten to them before dawn. Messages had been sent. Videos altered. Secrets pulled out into the light.
Of course, it wasn't over yet.
Of course, there was someone else.
Holt crossed the hall and opened the door.
Margo didn't hear the first words clearly, only the voice.
And the moment she heard Mina’s familiar drawl carry into the house, every one of the four younger people at the table seemed to have the exact same realization.
They were not merely caught.
They were completely busted.
Willa let out a long breath that sounded almost like defeat. Ace closed his eyes briefly. Rad muttered something too low for Margo to hear. Margo herself sat perfectly still, one hand still resting on the bacon platter, and wondered whether she would ever have another pleasant dream again.
Because whatever happened next, breakfast had just become an interrogation with a witness she’d not even known they needed to fear.
And judging by the look on June’s face as Mina stepped into the hall, they were all about to learn exactly how much of the past had already caught up with them and what their punishment was about to be for dishonesty, manipulation, and meddling.