Chapter 6 - The Stranger Waiting at the GateI reached the front gates in time to see Richard standing beside a black sedan.
The woman beside him was perhaps sixty years old, dressed in a charcoal coat with a silver scarf wrapped around her neck. Her face looked familiar in a way I couldn't explain.
Not because I had met her.
Because she had the same eyes as Richard.
Gray-green, with a tiny amber fleck near the left pupil.
When she saw me, she stopped walking.
“Daniel,” she said. “You have your father's face.”
I looked at Richard.
“Who is she?”
He opened the car door.
“Someone who should never have come here.”
The woman caught his sleeve.
“No more lies, Richard.”
He shook her hand away.
I stepped between them.
“Ma'am, are you claiming to be my brother's biological mother?”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“Yes.”
“What's your name?”
“Evelyn Ward.”
The initials on the locket seemed to burn against my palm.
“Why did Claire write about you?”
Evelyn's expression changed.
“Because she discovered the truth about Edward.”
My father had been dead for seven years. I had grown up believing he was a man of impeccable honor, a businessman who donated generously to hospitals and children's charities while demanding absolute loyalty from his employees.
I had inherited his company, his mansion, and his habit of avoiding difficult conversations.
But I had never inherited his secrets.
“What truth?” I asked.
Evelyn looked at Richard.
“He wants you to believe this is about his inheritance. It isn't. He has spent his entire life trying to understand why Edward took him away from me.”
Richard's jaw clenched.
“You abandoned me.”
“I was told you died.”
“You signed the papers.”
“Because Edward's lawyer brought me a document saying you had been placed with a family overseas and would never see me again. I was nineteen, frightened, and alone. I didn't know the document was false.”
“Convenient,” Richard said.
Evelyn's voice broke.
“I spent twenty-six years looking for you.”
I watched Richard's face.
A dozen questions crowded my mind, but one rose above the others.
“Was my father Richard's biological father?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer struck the air between us.
Richard laughed bitterly.
“There. Now the secret is out. Happy?”
I looked at him, searching for the boy I remembered sharing a bedroom with, the teenager who had helped me rebuild a motorcycle, the man who had stood beside me at my wedding to Claire.
“You knew?”
“I found out six months ago.”
“And Claire?”
“She found out before me.”
“That's why you wanted her dead?”
Richard's expression hardened.
“I didn't want Claire dead.”
“Then explain the accident.”
He looked at Evelyn.
She began shaking her head.
“Tell him,” she said. “Tell him what you did.”
Richard suddenly grabbed her arm.
Our security guards moved closer, but I raised my hand to stop them.
“Let her go.”
He released her.
Evelyn steadied herself and looked directly at me.
“Richard arranged to meet Claire on the night she died. He wanted the adoption records and the financial documents she had found. He told me she had threatened to ruin him.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“I wasn't there. But I received a phone call afterward.”
“From whom?”
“Richard.”
My brother's face had become frighteningly still.
Evelyn continued.
“He told me Claire had been in a terrible accident. Then he asked me to disappear again. He said if I spoke to anyone, he would make sure I never found my son.”
I stared at Richard.
“Did you cause her death?”
He looked toward the mansion.
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
I stepped closer.
“Did you arrange it?”
He swallowed.
“I arranged a meeting.”
“Who drove the other car?”
“I don't know.”
“Who was supposed to frighten her?”
His silence answered me.
I signaled security.
Richard immediately raised his voice.
“You can't arrest me because a woman with no evidence tells a sad story.”
“I'm not arresting you. I'm keeping you here until the police arrive.”
He smiled suddenly.
“You still don't understand, do you?”
I did not respond.
“Even if you prove every transfer was fraudulent, you'll never recover Lily's money. The accounts were emptied months ago.”
My chest tightened.
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
“Where?”
Richard leaned toward me.
“Ask Harold what happened to the money. Then ask yourself why your trusted family attorney approved every transaction.”
He stepped back as security closed in.
And Evelyn whispered something that made me turn toward the house.
“Harold isn't the one you should be afraid of.”
May you like
She pointed at the mansion.
“Your father left another son behind.”
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