Chapter 3 - The Photograph on the Table
Richard pounded on the door.
"Evelyn!"
Daniel jumped.
Adrian reached for the mask.
Evelyn caught his wrist.
"No."
He looked at her.
"No more masks."
Richard struck the door again.
"I know you're in there."
Evelyn opened it.
Her father stood outside with two men in dark suits.
His eyes moved past her.
They landed on Adrian.
Without the mask.
Richard stopped breathing.
For the first time in Evelyn's life, she watched her father become genuinely afraid.
"You," he whispered.
Adrian said nothing.
Richard recovered quickly.
"Daniel. Come with me."
Daniel stayed behind Evelyn.
Richard's eyes hardened.
"Now."
"No."
Richard stared at his son.
Evelyn held up the birth certificate.
"Who is Claire Mercer?"
Richard looked at the paper.
Something flickered across his face.
Then vanished.
"A dead woman."
"My mother?"
"No."
"Then explain this."
"Forgery."
Adrian laughed once.
Richard looked at him.
"You think this is funny?"
"No. I think you've had twenty-seven years to invent a better lie."
Richard stepped into the room.
"You have no idea what you're interfering with."
"I know exactly what I'm interfering with."
"Do you?"
Richard's gaze moved to the photographs.
Then the cassette.
He froze.
Evelyn noticed.
Adrian noticed too.
"You recognize it," Adrian said.
Richard's expression changed.
Barely.
But enough.
"What tape?"
"The one you're looking at."
Richard smiled.
"You're bluffing."
"Then you won't mind if Evelyn hears it."
Adrian picked up the cassette.
Richard lunged.
Everything happened at once.
Daniel shouted.
One of Richard's men moved forward.
Adrian caught Richard's arm and twisted it behind him.
The second man reached inside his jacket.
Evelyn grabbed the heavy brass candlestick from the desk.
"Don't."
The man stopped.
Evelyn held it like a weapon.
"I'm having a very bad wedding night."
Daniel almost laughed despite himself.
Richard struggled.
"Let go of me."
Adrian released him.
Richard straightened his jacket.
His face burned with humiliation.
Evelyn inserted the cassette into an old player on the bookshelf.
Adrian pressed Play.
Static.
Then a woman's voice.
Young.
Frightened.
"I copied everything."
Evelyn's breath caught.
Claire.
A man's voice answered.
Sebastian.
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Claire, come home."
"I can't."
"Why?"
A pause.
Then Claire whispered:
"Richard knows."
Richard moved toward the player.
Adrian blocked him.
The recording continued.
"He knows I found the transfers."
"Go to the police."
"I tried."
"What happened?"
"They called him."
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then Claire again.
"If something happens to me, protect my baby."
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Sebastian's voice broke.
"Claire—"
"Promise me."
"I promise."
The tape ended.
Nobody spoke.
Evelyn stared at Richard.
"My baby."
Richard shook his head.
"It proves nothing."
"It proves she had a child."
"Lots of women have children."
Evelyn held up the birth certificate.
"And this says that child was me."
Richard's eyes turned cold.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"Claire Mercer was unstable."
Adrian stepped forward.
Richard ignored him.
"She became obsessed with Sebastian. She claimed he loved her. She claimed they were going to leave together."
Evelyn looked at Adrian.
"Was Sebastian married?"
"At the time, yes."
Richard smiled.
"There's your saint."
Adrian's face tightened.
"But Claire disappeared," Evelyn said.
"She ran."
"Her car was found in a river."
"Because she wanted people to believe she was dead."
"How did I end up with you?"
Richard hesitated.
For the first time, Evelyn knew she had found the question he didn't want to answer.
"How?"
Margaret's voice came from the hallway.
"Because I took you."
Everyone turned.
Margaret Vale stood behind Richard.
She looked twenty years older than she had at the wedding.
Richard's face changed.
"Margaret."
"No more."
"Go home."
"No."
She entered the room.
Evelyn couldn't move.
Margaret approached her.
"I couldn't have children."
Her voice shook.
"Richard knew how badly I wanted one."
"Margaret."
"Stop ordering me around."
Richard went silent.
Margaret looked at Evelyn.
"One night Richard came home carrying a baby."
Evelyn's knees weakened.
"He said the mother had abandoned her. He said there were no relatives who wanted her."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
"I believed him because I wanted to."
"You raised me knowing I wasn't yours?"
"I raised you believing you became mine."
"That's not what I asked."
Margaret cried silently.
"No. I didn't know Claire was your mother."
"When did you find out?"
"Years later."
"How many?"
Margaret looked at Richard.
"Six."
Evelyn recoiled.
"You knew for twenty years."
"I loved you."
"That's why you let him sell me?"
Margaret flinched.
Richard stepped between them.
"Enough melodrama."
Evelyn stared at him.
"Where did you get me?"
Richard smiled faintly.
"You really want to know?"
"Yes."
"Ask Blackwood."
Adrian frowned.
Richard pointed toward the photograph.
"Ask him why his grandfather never came looking for you."
Adrian's expression changed.
Richard saw it.
"That's right. Your precious Sebastian knew."
Evelyn looked at Adrian.
"Is that true?"
"I don't know."
"Your grandfather promised to protect Claire's baby."
"I know."
"And I lived twenty-seven years in Richard's house."
Adrian had no answer.
Richard moved toward the door.
"Everybody has secrets, Evelyn."
She stopped him.
"Where is Claire?"
Richard turned.
For one moment, Evelyn expected another lie.
Instead he smiled.
"I never said she was dead."
Adrian froze.
"What?"
Richard walked away.
Adrian caught his shoulder.
"Where is she?"
Richard looked at his hand.
"Take that off me."
"Where is Claire?"
Richard's smile disappeared.
"Find her yourself."
He left.
His men followed.
Margaret remained.
Evelyn looked down at the photograph.
Claire Mercer stood at the edge of the group.
She was young.
Dark-haired.
Smiling.
Evelyn suddenly noticed something she had missed.
Claire wore a necklace.
Evelyn touched her own neck.
The necklace Margaret had given her on her eighteenth birthday.
The same necklace.
"Where did you get this?"
Margaret stared at it.
"Richard."
"When?"
"The night he brought you home."
Evelyn unclasped it.
Adrian took the pendant.
He examined the back.
There was a tiny seam.
He pressed it.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a miniature key.
Daniel leaned closer.
"What does it open?"
Margaret whispered, "I know."
Everyone looked at her.
She stared toward the dark hallway.
"There is a room in Vale Manor that Richard has kept locked for twenty-seven years."
Evelyn closed her fingers around the key.
"Take me there."
An hour later, they stood outside the locked room.
Evelyn inserted the key.
It turned.
The door opened two inches.
A light was already burning inside.
Then a woman's voice came from the darkness.
"Evelyn?"
May you like
Nobody moved.
The woman said her name again...
