Chapter 9 - The Night Evelyn Chose a Side
Evelyn ran.
The sedan accelerated.
Adrian grabbed the keys to Sebastian's car.
They followed.
Sebastian called investigators.
The chase ended not with violence, but at Vale Manor.
Thomas wanted everyone together.
Richard was already there.
For the first time, the architects of twenty-seven years of lies stood in one room.
Richard Vale.
Thomas Blackwood.
Sebastian.
Claire.
And the children who inherited their consequences.
Thomas looked surprisingly ordinary.
Late fifties.
Gray at the temples.
Expensive suit.
Cold eyes.
Adrian stared at the man he had believed was his father.
Thomas smiled.
"You've grown."
Adrian's fists tightened.
"You don't get to say that."
Thomas wanted the ledger.
Evelyn had it.
Or so he believed.
Richard wanted it too.
Their alliance collapsed instantly.
Accusations flew.
Thomas blamed Richard for Claire's disappearance.
Richard blamed Thomas.
Claire finally screamed.
"Both of you."
Silence.
"You both did it."
Thomas's smile disappeared.
Claire remembered everything now.
Richard took Evelyn.
Thomas arranged Claire's confinement.
Richard stole the properties.
Thomas laundered the money.
Neither man could expose the other without destroying himself.
That was why Claire had survived.
She was insurance.
Evelyn stepped forward.
"And the second recording?"
Thomas looked at her.
Claire smiled.
"There isn't one."
Thomas froze.
"You lied?"
"For twenty-seven years."
Claire looked at him.
"You kept me alive because you were afraid of something that never existed."
Richard laughed.
Thomas punched him.
Chaos erupted.
Police entered.
Thomas tried to run.
Adrian blocked him.
Thomas swung.
Adrian could have destroyed him.
Evelyn saw it.
Years of anger.
Years of lies.
Years of wanting revenge.
Adrian raised his fist.
Then lowered it.
"No."
Thomas laughed bitterly.
"Too weak?"
Adrian looked toward Evelyn.
"No. Finished."
Police arrested Thomas.
Richard slipped away during the confusion.
Again.
But this time he took Margaret.
Evelyn found a note.
COME HOME, DAUGHTER.
She stared at the handwriting.
Adrian approached.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Evelyn—"
"He wants me."
"Exactly."
She looked at him.
"For twenty-six years, everyone has decided what happens to me."
Adrian went quiet.
"My father sold me. My mother hid the truth. Sebastian watched from a distance. You married me for revenge."
He flinched.
"I'm done being moved around somebody else's board."
"What are you going to do?"
Evelyn picked up the real blue ledger.
"I'm going to end my father's game."
She drove alone.
At least Richard believed she did.
Police followed at a distance.
Adrian stayed behind.
Because she asked him to.
That mattered more than she expected.
Richard directed her to the abandoned Vale Development headquarters.
She entered carrying the ledger.
"Where's Mom?"
His voice came from upstairs.
"Come see."
Evelyn climbed.
Richard stood inside his old office.
Margaret sat beside him.
Untied.
Evelyn stopped.
Margaret stood.
"I'm sorry."
Richard smiled.
Evelyn's heart sank.
Margaret walked toward her husband.
Then she turned.
May you like
In her hand was a gun.
And it was pointed directly at Evelyn...
