Chapter 12 - The Man Behind EvanEvan didn't fire.
He slowly lowered the gun.
“Where did you get that recording?”
My mother smiled from the screen.
“You've been asking the wrong questions.”
Eleanor stepped forward.
“Who is his father?”
My mother said nothing.
Evan looked at her.
“Tell me.”
Silence.
Then the screen went black.
The room fell quiet.
I looked at Evan.
“Who is your father?”
He didn't answer.
My father appeared in the doorway.
Everyone turned.
Evan stared at him.
“You.”
My father nodded.
“Yes.”
Evan staggered backward.
“You're alive.”
“So are you.”
“You knew who I was.”
“I knew what you had become.”
Evan raised his gun.
My father didn't move.
“Did you send me to Caroline?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make sure she survived.”
“You used me.”
“I used everyone.”
Evan laughed bitterly.
“All these years.”
My father looked at him.
“I never knew whether you were my son or my enemy.”
Evan's face twisted.
“I'm both.”
The confession broke something in the room.
My father continued.
“The network was built to expose stolen money.”
“And became what?”
“A weapon.”
“Because of you.”
“Yes.”
Evan looked at me.
“I met Caroline because of him.”
I stared.
“He told me to get close to you.”
My chest tightened.
“But I didn't know I'd fall in love with you.”
“Then why did you fake your death?”
“Because they found out about the trust.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
He looked at my mother.
“She wanted the trust.”
At Eleanor.
“She wanted the ledger.”
At Judith.
“She wanted Evan alive.”
Then at Lauren.
“She wanted revenge.”
Lauren whispered:
“That's not true.”
Evan laughed.
“You all wanted something.”
“What did you want?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
Silence.
Then a siren sounded outside.
Police.
Megan looked at the window.
“We called them.”
Evan stepped backward.
“No.”
He turned toward the back door.
I grabbed his arm.
“You're not running.”
He looked at me.
For a second, he was simply the man I had married.
The man who had held me when my father disappeared.
The man who had made coffee every Sunday.
The man who had lied to me.
“I am sorry,” he whispered.
Then he kissed my forehead.
And vanished into the darkness.
Megan ran after him.
I stayed frozen.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message.
From Evan.
LOOK UNDER OUR BED.
I drove home alone.
The house felt like a mausoleum.
I entered our bedroom.
Everything was exactly as I had left it.
I knelt beside the bed.
There was a loose floorboard.
Underneath was a metal box.
Inside?
A birth certificate.
Evan Whitaker.
Mother: Eleanor Whitaker.
Father:
Richard Hale.
My father.
I stared at it.
Then I saw another document.
My own birth certificate.
Father:
Richard Hale.
Mother:
Unknown.
I stopped breathing.
The final page had one handwritten sentence.
Caroline, you are not his daughter.
My hands began to shake.
Then the bedroom door locked from the outside.
May you like
And someone whispered:
“Now you know why your mother was afraid of you.”
