Warning for slight mention of suicide. No description.
Chapter 4
Meliodas' face was inscrutable. The senior had listened patiently to Margaret for over half an hour, throwing in a question here and there, but for the most part, just letting her talk. She sagged against the couch when she was done; the relief of sharing her burden with someone other than her pillow made her heart feel lighter than it had in years.
But now Margaret was worried. Meliodas had been staring past her, out the window, for the last ten minutes, his forest green eyes thoughtful but not betraying a single hint of what was going through his head.
"Well, well, well…"
Meliodas let out a deep breath and gave her a kindly smile.
"Must've been hard not talking to anyone about it, eh? Aren't you and Elizabeth real close?"
Margaret nodded mutely. It was a bit embarrassing that she had come to Meliodas, more or less an outsider (though she had known him for years), than go to her own family. She hoped her sister would understand.
"From what I see, there's only two things that can be done here: you either dare Vivian to do her worst -"
"No, no, no!" Margaret burst out. "I can't! I can't let Gil lose his chance at the scholarship!"
"... or you turn the tables on her," Meliodas finished calmly.
Margaret frowned.
"Turn the tables?"
"Yeah, baby," Meliodas smacked his fist into his palm, grinning like a mad scientist. "It's time for a full counter!"
"This is a horrible idea," Margaret hissed in Meliodas' ear as they crouched over Vivian's laptop.
To be clear, it wasn't exactly Vivian's laptop - they were looking at her desktop via another computer screen, one belonging to a certain Gowther.
She may have got the name wrong. Meliodas had only mentioned it once and the slim young programming student in front of her certainly wasn't volunteering information. They seemed unaware that anyone was in the room with them.
Meliodas flashed her a cocky grin. "Relax… Gowther (Oh, she did get it right!) knows what they're doing. We've known each other forever and they're the best in the business. No one can keep them out - we call it the 'Invasion' technique, don't we, Gowther?"
"You call it that; I prefer not to assign labels to anything or anyone."
Margaret had watched in amazement as Gowther had, with a few strokes of their keyboard, designed some sort of malware (she got that much) that had popped up enticingly on Vivian's screen as she had browsed a selection of crystal bracelets. Soon enough, she'd clicked on the ad, a lot of numbers and letters had flashed up and the trio were now staring at Vivian's desktop as she graded papers.
"See? Piece of cake." Meliodas clapped his hands. "You just gotta ask the right people."
"This will require some time," Gowther intoned, standing up so suddenly that Margaret stumbled backwards. Their glasses flashed in the late afternoon sun. "You must leave. I will contact you when I find something."
"Oh, um, let me give you my number -"
"Not necessary. I already have your contact information and medical records."
Meliodas pushed Margaret towards the door, speaking over her sputtering indignation. "Gowther, we talked about this, remember? You can't just invade people's privacy like that…"
Two days. Two days since she had gone to find Meliodas in panic, finally finding him (mercifully alone) at the Boar's Hat, nursing a bottle of ale. She'd dragged him back to his apartment, the only place she was sure Vivian wouldn't and couldn't follow her to. There, she'd first burst into tears (which she was really annoyed at herself for) and then, with some encouragement, she'd poured the whole sordid saga into his ears.
How Vivian had always seemed to materialise whenever she and Gil hung out, first as a babysitter, then as a substitute teacher at school. How she managed to bribe others in school to spy on herself or Gil when Vivian couldn't be around herself. How she had taken all of Professor Zaratras' classes because Gil often spent his after-school hours on campus. How, when the money went missing from his office, Vivian had been one of the first to raise the alarm, despite Gil's dad not confiding in anyone about the loss.
"How did you know?" Meliodas asked.
Margaret paled at the memory. "We were playing hide and seek and I hid in his dad's office. I was still there when… when…" She gulped. "When Hendrickson and Dreyfus came in."
Meliodas' eyes widened. "Dreyfus? As in Gil's uncle, Griamore's dad, Dreyfus?"
Margaret nodded.
"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked gently.
Margaret flushed. "Because I didn't realise what I'd seen. Prof. Dreyfus goes in there all the time to talk to Gil's dad; I didn't think anything was wrong. All I cared about was leaving without being seen because I didn't want to get in trouble for hiding in a Professor's office." She faltered. "But when I left, I ran into Vivian instead. I wanted to distract her from the fact that I had snuck into Prof. Zaratras' office so - so I told her about Hendrickson and Dreyfus!" Margaret put her face in her hands and groaned.
"I didn't think it would matter; she didn't even blink when I told her. She even suggested that I share the story at dinner! But I completely forgot about it when Gil and his father didn't show up and I called to find Gil alone in his house."
Margaret shivered. That long night was still painfully vivid in her memory. The agony of waiting, her father disappearing after receiving a call from the university, Gil's taut face watching at the window, praying for his father to come home.
And then, things had happened so fast that Margaret had been left reeling in fear and confusion. Morning had brought the news that Professor Zaratras had been found in his office, dead. There was no sign of a struggle and no reason for foul play. When the funds were found missing, fingers were immediately pointed to the convenient scapegoat and his death had been written off as a suicide. With the ensuing scandal and his efforts to keep names off the newspapers in consideration for Gil's future, Margaret's father had lost his position; a motion of no-confidence and incompetence was brought about by the rest of the faculty who had no trouble believing Vivian and Dr. Hendrickson's story.
"I wish I'd spoken up then," Margaret whispered, hot tears pricking her eyes in shame. "But no one would tell us exactly what happened - no one mentioned any missing money. It was weeks later that I even remembered that Hendrickson and Dreyfus had gone into that room and years later when I wondered why Vivian had been hanging around outside long after classes were over. By the time I'd finally put the pieces together, it was too late."
"Could she have been in on it from the beginning?"
Margaret shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past her, knowing what I know of her now. But I think she was just fast on the uptake: she realised what had happened from my story, confronted Hendrickson and Dreyfus and convinced them to split the money with her or she'd turn them in. Or, she mentioned me as a threat and suggested a way to bury the whole thing."
Meliodas gave a low whistle. "By wrapping the whole thing in an even bigger scandal - man, she's got a pair."
Margaret sighed. "Everyone knew Professor Zaratras was administering the fund. It wouldn't be too hard to reroute it, I guess, and make it seem like he did it."
Meliodas nodded absently, lost in thought, his face inscrutable. Margaret looked at him, worried. His eyes held a faraway look, as if his thoughts had already flown to a future that Margaret could not follow him to.
"Gilthunder? Soooo glad I caught you," Vivian purred into the phone. "I know your interview's coming up so I thought it might be a good idea for us to go over some possible questions so you can be prepared... What? Favouritism?" She laughed. "Everyone's got their favourites, my dear. Besides, I'm not even on the committee… you'll be here soon? Great!"
Vivian hung up and smiled. He was still being very difficult but she knew where his pressure points were. A few more gentle nudges should do the trick. She checked her lipstick and smoothed down her hair.
The door opened without warning and Margaret stalked in. Vivian's eyes bulged.
"Get out!" she shouted, rounding her desk and fully intending to push the little bitch out before Gilthunder arrived.
Margaret crossed her arms and planted her feet. "I'm not going anywhere, Vivian," she said steely, making Vivian hesitate for the first time in years.
"You and I need to talk."
A/N: Please don't come at me for the malware/remote access scene! I'm no good with tech stuff. It wasn't until much later that I remembered a certain heist movie with 8 ladies had done the same thing.
Hope you enjoyed this segment 'coz I sure had a hard time wresting it into a readable shape. Thanks for reading, please leave a review if you can :)
