Margarethe wrapped her warm wool blanket around the young girl's wet, cold shoulders.
They sat together on the big soft couch inside the warm sitting room near the fireplace.
The fire crackled softly while the rain continued to beat hard against the outer windows.
Margarethe could not stop looking at her granddaughter's face as the child drank warm chocolate.
Years of regret and buried guilt suddenly burst open inside the old woman's cold heart.
Margarethe: I spent twenty years believing my daughter did not want anything to do with me.
Lily: Mom kept your photo in that locket and looked at it every night before sleeping.
Margarethe: Why did she never write to me or send me a message all these long years?
Lily: She said she wrote many letters, but your lawyer told her never to write again.
Margarethe gasped softly as a sudden wave of fury replaced her heavy sadness now.
She remembered her trusted lawyer, Arthur, who managed all her vast wealth and property affairs.
Arthur had always insisted that Sarah only wanted money and hated her elderly mother deeply.
He was the one who handled all incoming mail and legal matters for the estate.
Margarethe: Arthur told me that Sarah refused every attempt I made to reach out to her.
Lily: My mom told me that the lawyer man came to our old apartment once.
Margarethe: What did Arthur say to your mother when he visited her back then?
Lily: He told her that you signed paper to cut her off from everything forever.
Margarethe gripped the armrest of her chair so hard that her knuckles turned totally white.
She realized in one terrible moment that her trusted advisor had lied to both of them.
Arthur had deliberately kept mother and daughter apart so he could control the family trust fund.
If Sarah never returned, Arthur would keep collecting huge management fees from the vast estate.
Margarethe: That evil man stole twenty precious years of life away from my family!
Lily: Uncle Richard said the lawyer is coming here today to sign some final papers.
Margarethe: What papers is he coming to sign with me today, child?
Lily: Uncle Richard said the lawyer wants you to give the estate to a charity board.
Margarethe stood up straight with a sharp newfound energy filling her elderly body completely.
She was no longer just a lonely old woman hiding inside a giant quiet house.
She had a granddaughter to protect and a massive injustice to correct before the sun set.
Margarethe: He thinks I am weak and foolish, but he is about to find out otherwise.
Lily: Are you going to call the police on him, Grandma?
Margarethe: First I am going to let him trap himself right in front of witnesses.