Marguerite was taken aback by Miley’s exnation.
“So, she handed over the position meant for her daughter to me?”
“No kidding!” Miley rolled her eyes at Marguerite with no pretense of subtlety. “Marguerite, seriously, what’s your secret? Howe everyone’s just falling head over heels for you? I’m starting to get a wee bit jealous over here.”
Marguerite nearly burst intoughter.
“Don’t you go buttering me up! Aren’t you the same? Penelope must like you too, right? Why else would she sneak you into thepany through the back door?”
“That’s not it at all!” Miley was a mix of indignation and a touch of wistfulness, “Penelope doesn’t even know I’m Robert’s girlfriend! I got the job on my own merits! I’m a private investigator by trade, you know. Justst week, while digging up info for a client, I found that the Fitzgeralds trying to set up Robert with a marriage alliance. So, naturally, I rushed over!”
Marguerite looked at Miley’s childlike frustration and couldn’t help but find it both exasperating and amusing, “With that firecracker personality, you should be chasing off those would-be fiancées, not sneaking around.”
“What do you know!”
Margueriteughed heartily, teasing Miley further:
“I might not know much, but I sure thought, with all your ‘my mother-inw this and that,’ you had the Fitzgerald n eating out of your hand. Turns out they don’t even know you exist.”
Miley was crestfallen. “They know Robert has a girlfriend. But Hackett Fitzgerald looks down on my family for being new money from a lottery win, thinking I’m not good enough for them.
I wanted to test the waters with Penelope; after all, to solve a problem at its root, you’ve got to butter up the mother-inw first, right? Maybe once Penelope gets to know me, sees my charm, she mighte around. Anyway, Penelope is definitely going to be my mother-inw!”
Suddenly, Marguerite saw parallels between her own life and Miley’s.
In the early stages of their rtionships, neither was epted by their partner’s family.
Butpared to herself, Miley was braver and more confrontational. She went after what she wanted with all her might and main. In contrast, here was Marguerite, still hesitating because of Frederick’s ‘I don’t love you,’ unsure whether to move forward or not.
Miley sighed and suddenly remembered something urgent, quickly asking, “By the way, what happened to Mr. Winston? I stopped by Thunderbolt Enterprises beforeing here and saw Robert tending to his wounds. They looked like gunshot wounds?”
Marguerite hesitated, instinctively wanting to keep the truth hidden.
Frederick had warned that this matter should not be disclosed to anyone, but Miley caught the fleeting look of evasion in Marguerite’s eyes. “Don’t you dare keep things from me! Remember my profession – if there’s something I want to know, I’ll dig it up even if it’s three feet underground!”
Convinced by Miley’s argument and knowing that she could probably worm it out of Robert anyway, Marguerite let down her guard and spilled the beans about everything that had happened over the past couple of days.
She detailed how Frederick was shot, how he ended up back at the Winston Mansion, and everyst detail of Barnes and Yuna’s behavior in the holding cell – she told her everything.
Miley listened intently and then looked at Marguerite, finding the situation exceedingly strange.
“You said Barnes was staring at you before he asked Mr. Winston to bring Yuna over?”
Marguerite nodded.
“Then he must have had something to tell you, right? After Yuna came, he didn’t leave any crucial information?”
Marguerite shook her head.
“And the second before Barnes lost his voice, he mentioned Hayes’ name?” Miley pressed on.
“Yes.”
Miley rubbed her temples, mentally juggling the three names.
Barnes… Yuna… Hayes. Her professional instincts kicked in as she rapidly spected about the connection between the three.
Looking back at Marguerite and then thinking of Hayes, Miley suddenly gasped in realization:
“Marguerite, haven’t you ever noticed how much Hayes looks like you?”