She knew all this before she and Bette stepped into the foyer of the luxurious hotel earlier that evening. She knew it before being waylaid by their trusted assistant Michael with the insistence that they meet with a young man that said he had something of urgency to discuss with them; something that couldn’t wait until the evening’s festivities were concluded. So she and Bette had followed Michael into a private room to hear what this stranger had to say.

As bad as things had gotten Peggy still held out some hope that Helena would redeem herself for all her wrong doing but after being blindsided by what this young man revealed she couldn’t help but wonder how so much malevolence could reside in one so devastatingly beautiful? Had she spawned the devil’s child?

***

Helena was in her study early on Friday morning going over several legal documents that she’d received from Peggy’s lawyer Bruce Cohen outlining the revisions of her inheritance. Peggy had the controlling interest of the family fortune but her husband Alistair had made provisions for his only daughter. Since Peggy had taken care of all her financial needs up until now Helena never had to access her trust fund even after she came of age. Now reading through the papers she was reminded that in addition to the millions she’d inherited she also had the Peabody mansion in London to her name. It was almost as if Alistair had a premonition that the two most important women in his life would someday come to this disconcerting parting of ways and prepared for the eventuality.

It was evident to Alistair even when Helena was a child that she and Peggy were cut from very different cloth. He was amazed at how unalike they were not only physically but in temperament to the extent that he would sometimes joke with Peggy that their baby had been switched at birth. There were days that Peggy believed it and wasn’t entirely joking when she responded back that they should have DNA testing done just to be sure.

Although both of them were exceptionally beautiful women they looked nothing alike. Helena was a statuesque brunette with piercing blue eyes while Peggy was a petite blond with hazel green eyes but the difference in physicality encompassed more than their appearance. It also extended to their mental, spiritual, and social beings.