Chapter 2 - THE DEAD WOMAN
Nobody moved.
Not Daniel.
Not Margaret.
Not Charles.
Not even my father.
Evelyn stood beneath the chandelier as if she had stepped out of a grave.
Daniel recovered first.
“This woman is insane.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You said the same thing fourteen years ago.”
“Get out of my house.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Still calling it yours?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
Two security guards moved toward her.
Dad stepped in front of them.
“I wouldn’t.”
One guard stopped.
The other looked at Daniel.
“Remove her.”
I grabbed Dad’s arm.
“Wait.”
Then I looked at Evelyn.
“What do you mean they buried you?”
She reached inside her coat.
Daniel moved instantly.
“Don’t!”
Dad positioned himself between us.
Evelyn slowly removed an old photograph.
She handed it to me.
I looked down.
Five people stood beside a lake.
Charles.
Margaret.
A much younger Daniel.
Another young man I recognized as Daniel’s older brother, Michael.
And Evelyn.
On the back someone had written:
JUNE 17, 2012.
Three days before Evelyn Carter supposedly died.
“How do you know my husband?”
Evelyn looked directly at me.
“I worked for his father.”
Charles finally spoke.
“You stole from me.”
Evelyn laughed.
“There it is.”
She turned toward the guests.
“The story they told everyone.”
Charles stepped forward.
“You embezzled company funds and disappeared.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice hardened.
“I found you embezzling company funds.”
A murmur moved through the ballroom.
Charles’s face changed.
Evelyn continued.
“Twenty-eight million dollars.”
Daniel snapped.
“Enough.”
“Shell companies.”
“Enough!”
“Fake contractors.”
Daniel lunged toward her.
Dad caught him by the chest and shoved him backward.
“Stay where you are.”
Daniel pointed at Evelyn.
“She’s lying.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Ask him about Blackwater Point.”
Daniel froze.
I saw it.
A fraction of a second.
But I saw it.
“What’s Blackwater Point?”
Nobody answered.
Evelyn did.
“A piece of Whitmore property near Lake Marion.”
She looked at Daniel.
“It’s where they tried to kill me.”
Margaret suddenly shouted.
“You drunken little thief!”
Evelyn turned.
Margaret’s face was twisted with rage.
“You crashed your car!”
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice became quiet.
“Daniel drove.”
My stomach dropped.
Daniel shook his head.
“I was nineteen.”
“You were twenty.”
“I barely knew you.”
“You were sitting beside me.”
“Liar.”
“You held my arms while Michael injected me.”
The ballroom erupted in whispers.
Michael Whitmore wasn’t at the party.
He rarely appeared at family events.
Daniel had always told me his brother lived overseas.
Evelyn continued.
“They put me in my car.”
“They pushed it down the embankment.”
“And they expected the lake to do the rest.”
I stared at my husband.
He wouldn’t look at me.
“Daniel.”
Nothing.
“Look at me.”
He finally did.
“Is that true?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Too sharp.
Evelyn reached into her coat again.
This time she removed a small digital recorder.
Charles’s face drained of color.
“I spent fourteen years hiding.”
Evelyn said.
“But I wasn’t hiding empty-handed.”
She pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then a young man’s voice.
“Dad says we have to get rid of her tonight.”
Another voice answered.
Daniel’s voice.
Younger.
But unmistakable.
“What if she wakes up?”
My knees nearly gave out.
Then Michael’s voice came through.
“She won’t.”
Daniel charged toward the recorder.
Dad blocked him again.
The recording continued.
“What about the files?”
“We find them after.”
“And Evelyn?”
A pause.
Then Daniel’s younger voice said:
“Put her in the car.”
Someone screamed.
A guest near the back began recording on his phone.
Daniel saw him.
“Turn that off!”
Too late.
The room had heard it.
I had heard it.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“We’re leaving.”
I ripped myself away.
“Don’t touch me.”
His eyes widened.
I had never said that to him in front of anyone.
Dad moved beside me.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Claire.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I understand enough.”
Evelyn stared at the bruise on my wrist.
Her expression changed.
“He hurts you.”
I said nothing.
She nodded slowly.
“Of course he does.”
Daniel shouted.
“Shut up!”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You became your father.”
Charles slapped her.
The sound cracked through the ballroom.
Dad moved forward.
But Evelyn didn’t flinch.
She slowly turned her face back toward Charles.
Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
Then she smiled.
“Thank you.”
Charles frowned.
“For what?”
“For doing that in front of eighty witnesses.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Daniel turned toward the windows.
Red and blue lights flashed through the gates.
Margaret stared at Evelyn.
“What did you do?”
Evelyn wiped the blood from her mouth.
“I stopped hiding.”
Police vehicles rolled toward the mansion.
But Evelyn leaned toward me.
“There’s something you need to know before they get inside.”
“What?”
She looked at Daniel.
Then back at me.
“Your husband didn’t marry you because he loved you.”
My chest tightened.
“What are you talking about?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“He married you because of your mother.”
