Chapter 7 — Margaret’s One Request
Daniel stared at Peter.
“What does she want?”
Peter answered:
“One conversation.”
“That’s it?”
“One conversation where neither of you promises anything afterward.”
Daniel frowned.
“No demand to see Oliver?”
“No.”
“No holiday plans?”
“No.”
“No requests that I start calling every week?”
“No.”
Peter looked directly at him.
“She told me if she begins negotiating for access before she has repaired anything with you, stop the meeting.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
Daniel could barely connect that sentence to the woman he remembered.
Margaret had once treated every boundary as the beginning of a negotiation.
Daniel said:
“Don’t come over without calling.”
Margaret answered:
“But what if it’s important?”
Daniel said:
“Don’t contact Oliver’s teacher directly.”
Margaret answered:
“But I’m his grandmother.”
Every limit came with a counterargument.
Now she had apparently paid a mediator to stop her from doing exactly that.
Daniel looked toward Claire.
“Would you stay with Oliver?”
“Of course.”
Oliver looked concerned.
“Are you going upstairs?”
“No.”
Daniel smiled slightly.
“She’s coming downstairs if I tell Peter yes.”
“Are you mad?”
Daniel thought carefully.
“A little.”
“Scared?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Maybe that too.”
Oliver nodded as though this made sense.
Then:
“You can come back if you don’t like it.”
Daniel stared at his son.
“Yeah.”
“I can.”
That sentence helped more than Oliver knew.
Peter called Margaret.
“He agreed to one conversation.”
A pause.
Then Peter said:
“No, Oliver will not be there.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
“That’s the boundary.”
Daniel watched him.
Then Peter ended the call.
“She’ll meet you in the Cedar Room in ten minutes.”
Daniel stood.
He was almost at the office door when Claire spoke.
“Mr. Bennett.”
He turned.
She pointed toward the security footage still paused on the screen.
“Before you go, there is another part of this recording you should see.”
Daniel frowned.
Claire moved the timeline backward.
What happened five minutes before Peter approached Oliver changed Daniel’s understanding of the encounter again.
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