After tucking the girls in for the night, Margaret opened her old dresser. She flipped through the worn pages of her leather-bound address book until the name of Tom’s boss, Mr. Dickens, appeared. She remembered the words of Mr. Dickens about his daughter: “Pearl is the jewel of my life.”
Margaret paused, wondering if she was doing the right thing. But she had no other choice.
She dialed her number, her heart racing. “Mr. Dickens is Margaret. There’s something you need to know about Tom and Pearl,” she said when he answered.
Margaret had synced her phone with Tom’s secret phone and knew he was going to meet Pearl at a hotel that evening.
Later, at the hotel, Margaret spotted Tom and Pearl together, laughing and heading toward the elevator. She had left her daughters with a neighbor, so she wouldn’t have to worry about them being alone.
Margaret stealthily follows Tom and Pearl, and once outside their bedroom door, where a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign hangs, she sends a message to Mr. Dickens: “Your daughter and my husband are here together. If you’re interested, come.”
Mr. Dickens’s arrival was thunderous, his voice rumbling with betrayal. “Open that door, Pearl!” he demands, knocking on the door.
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