Chapter 2 - THE ANATOMY OF A LIE
I stood on the sidewalk,
the envelope heavy in my hand.
Noelle caught up to me,
her face flushed with irritation.
"Evan, what on earth has gotten into you?"
She looked at the envelope.
She looked at my face.
"Who was that woman? You looked like you saw a dead person."
"I think I did," I whispered.
I looked at the handwriting again.
It looked exactly like mine.
Every slant of the 'E'.
The way the 'n' trailed off at the end.
But the paper was old.
It was dated four years ago.
The same month Rachel had vanished.
I tucked it into my pocket.
"I need to go, Noelle."
"Go? We have the tasting at the hotel in twenty minutes!"
"Cancel it," I said.
I didn't wait for her to argue.
I walked toward my car,
my heart a drum in my chest.
I sat in the driver's seat and waited for my hands to stop shaking.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
It was a letter from "me" to Rachel.
It was cold.
It was cruel.
It told her that she was a mistake.
It told her that my family would never accept her.
It told her that I was paying her to go away,
and that if she ever contacted me again,
I would destroy her family's reputation.
I read it three times.
I felt sick.
I had never felt those things.
I had loved her more than I had ever loved anyone.
I had been ready to walk away from my inheritance for her.
And then,
I saw the second item in the envelope.
A folded medical report.
A positive pregnancy test.
Dated two weeks before she disappeared.
She had tried to tell me.
She had come to my office that day,
four years ago.
My mother had been there.
She told me Rachel had left because she found someone else.
She showed me a letter Rachel had "left" for me.
The same handwriting.
The same cruel tone.
Two letters.
Two lies.
Forged by someone who wanted us apart.
I looked at the medical report again.
Triplets.
She had carried three children alone.
She had raised them in the shadows while I was being groomed for a corporate merger.
I started the engine.
I didn't go to the hotel.
I didn't go home to Noelle.
I drove to the only place Rachel would go.
Her mother's old house in West Philly.
I hoped she hadn't sold it.
I hoped she was still there.
Because if she was,
May you like
I was going to demand the truth.
Even if it broke my world in half.
