Chapter 6 - The Woman Behind The Silence
After the photograph of Matteo holding Evelyn's hand appeared online, everything changed.
People called her lucky.
Others called her opportunistic.
Some called her stupid.
None of them knew the truth.
Evelyn was not Matteo's girlfriend.
Not yet.
The photograph had been a statement.
A warning.
And it worked.
For several days, no one approached her.
Her father's shop filled with flowers.
Orders flooded in.
Clients who had ignored her for years suddenly wanted appointments.
Evelyn hated it.
She didn't want pity.
She didn't want celebrity.
She wanted to sew.
Matteo understood.
One afternoon, he found her working over a bridal gown.
"You don't like the attention."
"No."
"You're getting used to it."
"No."
He smiled.
"You answer quickly."
"I'm tired."
He sat across from her.
"Then stop."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because sewing makes sense."
He studied her.
"People don't."
"Exactly."
She laughed.
He smiled.
Then he placed something on the table.
A small box.
Evelyn opened it.
Inside was a pair of antique sewing scissors.
Her breath caught.
"They belonged to Arthur Bell."
"You found them?"
"Yes."
Evelyn touched them carefully.
There was an engraving.
A.H.
Her mentor's initials.
"This is the first thing anyone has ever given me that mattered more than money."
Matteo watched her.
"I know."
She looked up.
"How?"
"Because you didn't look at the price."
That night, Evelyn and Matteo walked through the quiet streets near the lake.
She asked him questions.
Not about crime.
About him.
What he ate.
Why he hated crowded restaurants.
Why he always carried a fountain pen.
He answered all of them.
Then he asked her one.
"Why do you hide?"
She looked at him.
"I don't."
"You do."
Evelyn was silent.
"My mother used to say beautiful women were treated like ornaments."
"And?"
"I wasn't beautiful enough to be an ornament."
Matteo frowned.
"Who told you that?"
"No one."
"You just decided it?"
"People behave differently toward women who are noticed."
He stopped walking.
"Evelyn."
She looked up.
"You are noticed."
Her cheeks warmed.
"Not in the way you mean."
"In exactly the way I mean."
He touched her cheek.
She did not move.
Then he kissed her.
It was gentle.
Unexpected.
Real.
For a moment, the world disappeared.
Then Evelyn's phone rang.
She stepped away.
It was her father.
"Evelyn."
She heard fear in his voice.
"What happened?"
"I found something."
"What?"
"Come home."
She returned to the shop.
Her father was holding an envelope.
Inside was a letter from Evelyn's mother.
It had been written twenty-eight years earlier.
My daughter,
If you are reading this, something has happened that I prayed never would.
Your father will tell you I was wrong.
He will tell you he did everything to protect you.
Believe him.
But do not trust Richard.
And there is one more thing you must know.
Your father did not hide the Bellwether Ledger because of the names inside.
He hid it because the final page contains the name of the man who ordered my death.
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Matteo read the letter.
His face became cold.
"The final page."
Her father nodded.
"I destroyed it."
"Did you?"
Her father's eyes filled with tears.
"No."
He pointed toward an old sewing table.
"It was hidden."
Evelyn opened the table.
A false bottom.
Inside was a sealed packet.
She opened it.
A single name stared back.
Gabriel Hawthorne.
The head of the Hawthorne Syndicate.
The most dangerous man in Chicago.
Matteo's expression hardened.
"He knows we have it."
A car exploded outside.
The shop windows shook.
Evelyn screamed.
Matteo grabbed her.
Her father fell.
Smoke filled the street.
May you like
And from the burning sidewalk came a message painted in red.
BRING US THE GIRL.
