Chapter 4 - The Woman Everyone Believed Was Dead
Evelyn did not look like a killer.
She looked like a grandmother.
Soft gray cardigan.
Thin silver necklace.
Tired eyes.
But Adrian had spent twenty years believing she was dead.
Delaney stepped backward.
“You followed us.”
“No.”
“Then how did you get here?”
“Because this room was built for me.”
Margaret stared.
“You said you destroyed everything.”
“I destroyed the evidence.”
“But not the room.”
Evelyn looked at Delaney.
“I couldn't destroy you.”
Delaney's voice became barely audible.
“You took those photographs.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you were alive.”
“Who ordered you to watch me?”
“No one.”
“Then why?”
Evelyn sighed.
“Because I made a promise to your mother.”
Adrian's voice echoed from the passage.
“Mother!”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“He found us.”
Evelyn remained calm.
“Let him come.”
Adrian entered with a gun in his hand.
His eyes went immediately to Evelyn.
He froze.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Adrian whispered, “You're alive.”
Evelyn nodded.
“You've grown.”
“Don't.”
“Adrian—”
“Don't say my name like you still have the right.”
Margaret stepped between them.
“This isn't the time.”
“It became the time twenty years ago.”
Adrian's gun lowered.
“Did you kill my father?”
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“Were you there?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me everything.”
Evelyn looked at Delaney.
“Your father was going to expose Silas.”
“Why?”
“Because Silas had been selling information to a rival group.”
Adrian clenched his jaw.
Evelyn continued.
“Thomas found the records.”
“And my mother?”
“She found Thomas's records.”
“Then what happened?”
“They decided to silence both of them.”
Adrian asked, “Who decided?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Your father.”
Adrian froze.
Delaney felt the room change.
“Your father knew?”
“He knew something was wrong. He ordered Thomas to protect Kathleen and Delaney.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Then why did he die?”
“Because he realized Silas had been manipulating everyone.”
Evelyn's voice broke.
“He confronted him.”
“And Silas killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Did my mother know?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know your father's secretary was helping her?”
“I wasn't his secretary anymore. By then, I was working for myself.”
Evelyn opened one of the boxes.
Inside was a newspaper.
The headline announced the deaths of Thomas and Kathleen Ward.
But beneath it was another page.
A handwritten message.
Protect the girl.
Delaney touched it.
“That's my mother's handwriting.”
“Yes.”
“What did she want?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“She wanted you to have a normal life.”
Delaney laughed bitterly.
“Normal?”
“You did have one.”
“I've spent twenty years believing my mother abandoned me.”
“She didn't.”
“She was murdered.”
“Yes.”
“And everybody lied to me.”
“Yes.”
Delaney wiped her eyes.
“Then why should I forgive anyone?”
Evelyn didn't answer.
She looked at Adrian.
“Because your mother didn't save you for revenge.”
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
“She saved me?”
Evelyn nodded.
“When the killers came, Margaret hid Delaney beneath the mill. She stayed behind long enough to make them believe Delaney had been moved.”
Delaney looked at Margaret.
“You protected me.”
“I tried.”
“You told me she died.”
“I thought the truth would get you killed.”
Delaney stepped toward her.
“And twenty years later, you asked me to pretend to be your daughter.”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because for five minutes, you were safe with me.”
Delaney's anger broke.
She hugged her.
Margaret collapsed against her shoulder, crying.
Adrian looked away.
For a moment, he seemed like a son instead of a feared crime boss.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression became deadly.
“Where?”
A pause.
“Don't touch him.”
He ended the call.
“Silas has Daniel.”
Evelyn stood.
“Then he knows about the drive.”
Adrian turned to Delaney.
“Give me the locket.”
Delaney shook her head.
“No.”
“It's part of the evidence.”
“It belongs to me.”
“I need to examine it.”
She removed it and looked closely.
The back had always seemed blank.
Evelyn took a magnifying glass.
A tiny seam appeared.
“It opens.”
Delaney stared.
Adrian carefully turned it.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
Everyone went silent.
Evelyn whispered, “Your mother was smarter than we thought.”
The film contained account numbers.
Shell companies.
Dates.
Payments.
Names.
And one final line.
PAID TO KEEP DELANEY WARD ALIVE.
The payment was dated twenty years ago.
The sender was Silas Vale.
Delaney looked at Adrian.
“Your uncle paid someone to protect me?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Not someone.”
“Who?”
Evelyn turned the page.
The recipient was listed under a name Delaney recognized.
Her own.
It was an account opened for her shortly after her mother's death.
Thousands of dollars had been deposited every month.
For twenty years.
Delaney stared.
“Who has been paying my rent?”
Nobody answered.
Then Adrian did.
“My father.”
Delaney's heart stopped.
“He wasn't trying to hide you.”
“He was trying to protect you.”
The money had been coming from an account controlled by the man Delaney believed had abandoned her mother.
A father she had hated without ever knowing him.
Adrian looked at her.
“The past wasn't what you were told.”
Then the basement lights went out.
May you like
In the darkness, Evelyn whispered one sentence.
“Silas isn't the biggest secret in this family.”
