While guests resumed strained conversation over untouched appetizers, Priya arrived through the side entrance. She carried the pharmacy time records and an affidavit Hannah had signed the previous evening. Caroline welcomed the independent lawyer's presence, then drew a clear boundary: nobody would adjudicate forgery in a wedding corridor. The right place for those questions was a court or authorized investigation. For now, they could stop the imminent trust transaction and protect Lucy from any sudden change in placement.
The estate's operations manager offered Hannah a private sitting room. She accepted and sat with Lucy beside a window overlooking the rose garden. Outside, children chased one another around the fountain, unaware of the adult disaster. Lucy picked at the edge of her bow. "Am I in trouble for the music?" Hannah told her the grown-ups would handle what happened next. She also said it was important to ask for help rather than playing private recordings in public. Lucy nodded, apparently relieved that someone was setting rules without threatening to abandon her.
In another room Daniel asked Caroline whether Margaret was alive and safe. The lawyer said Margaret had been transferred after her stroke, and that she had now arranged to speak with independent counsel. She had not authorized the residential placement or the property sale. Daniel pressed his palms against his eyes. Margaret had raised him during summers when his parents traveled. He remembered her teaching him to mend bicycle tires and balance a checkbook. He had never visited after her illness because Celeste had said visitors upset her recovery.
Celeste's father Edward entered and demanded the lawyers stop embarrassing his family. He spoke of investments, reputational damage, and the promises made to prospective hotel partners. Caroline told him the project's inconvenience had no bearing on Lucy's welfare. Edward then threatened to sue anyone who insinuated misconduct. Priya calmly wrote down his words. Across the table Martin began gathering papers, but Caroline asked him to leave the originals where they were until the document dispute could be properly addressed.
Even as he listened, Daniel worried about the guests he had invited. The thought embarrassed him. The difference between those choices mattered more than appearances.
Daniel confronted Celeste privately. "You told me Margaret wanted this." Celeste said Margaret had become sentimental and unreliable. He asked why her name appeared on a document that she had challenged. Celeste replied that professionals handled signatures all the time. Daniel stepped away, troubled not only by what she said but by how little Lucy mattered in her answer. Then his phone rang. It was the rehabilitation center. Margaret herself had asked to speak with him, and she had one condition: Celeste was not to be present.