'No, you don't, ma'am, which makes this even more suspicious. Marguerite Evans is a mentally challenged woman who needs constant, 24/7 care. You clearly aren't even her. What are you two grifters trying to pull?'
'I have ID,' I say, pulling out my license.
He glances at it with a scoff. 'Doesshe?'
Marguerite shakes her head. 'I don't have a license,' she mutters. 'And my passport is,' she looks down at the floor, 'in John's…Andrew’shouse somewhere. I have my campus ID, though.’
She begins to search the pockets of her blue coat, but the lawyer shakes his head.
‘I can’t accept a student ID, and even if I could, I told you already that I need Marguerite Evans’ guardian present for any discussions.’
'Come on,' I say to Daisy, tugging her toward the elevators as I eye Meyer angrily. 'There's nothing we can do here.'
We leave the office empty-handed, and we’re watched like criminals as we walk out.
'Are you okay?' I ask, almost afraid to inquire as we make our way back to the car.
She shakes her head. 'Same shit, different day,' she answers. 'I don't know. I guess I was naive. I thought, with your dad being gone, that this would be over, but I've just traded one master in for another. We need to figure out what all this is about, and this place is the key. The correspondence. We need to find more of it if they're not going to tell us anything. I'm just so sick of being talked to like I'm not a real person. I hate this.'
'I'm sorry,' I say.
She makes a noise of annoyance. 'It's not your fault. It's just this fucking guardianship. Why did my mom do this to me?'
'I don't think she wanted it to be this way,' I say. 'I can't imagine your mom signed those papers thinking that this is what John would do with his power over you.’
‘None of it makes any sense. What was the point? What was the point of all of this? When my mom died, John couldhave just pretended I didn't exist, but he brought me back here. He set up this contract with the Bandervilles that I’m not allowed out of. Why?'
We get in the car and she looks over at me, her face mulish.
'I'm gonna go and see Andrew,' she says.
'Not by yourself,' I say.
'Yes,' she says. 'He might open up more if you're not there. All you guys do is antagonize each other. If I can get Andy on my side, maybe I can figure out what all this is about. Maybe I can get him to change his mind, go through the process of rescinding this guardianship nonsense after all.'
'Okay, but I'll come with. I can wait in the car,' I say.
She gives me a look. 'I'm an adult woman.'
'I know,' I say, 'but in that house… Daisy, you were… All the shit that happened.’ I take her hand. ‘We found stuff on Joe's phone.'
She freezes and pulls her hand from mine, wrapping her arms around her middle.
‘Stuff?’ she asks quietly.
'Videos,' I elaborate.
She looks vaguely ill.
'Oh,' she says softly, looking out the window.
'Were you ever going to tell us about any of that?'
She rolls her eyes and looks back at me.
'No, probably not,' she says truthfully. 'I don't see the point of dredging stuff up over and over and over again. What's happened, happened. The nurse is dead, and so is Joe, and so is Joseph. If I could get away with killing Marcus, I might just do that, too.’
Her eyes widen and she gets her phone out. ‘Oh, I forgot.’
