Chapter 11 - What Evelyn Knew
By sunrise, Julian Vale was in federal custody.
By breakfast, half of Dominic’s business empire was frozen.
By noon, every news station in New York had his name on screen.
Dominic didn’t watch.
He sat on the hospital floor outside Evelyn’s room with three sleeping toddlers piled around him.
Hannah brought coffee.
“You look terrible.”
“So do you.”
“Thanks.”
“You started it.”
She sat beside him.
For several minutes they said nothing.
Finally Dominic whispered, “She was alive eleven months.”
Hannah looked at him.
“I know.”
“I slept in our bed.”
“You thought she was dead.”
“I stopped searching.”
“You searched for months.”
“I stopped.”
Hannah understood what he was doing.
Punishing himself.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“If Evelyn wants to be angry at you, let Evelyn be angry at you.”
His expression tightened.
“But don’t put words in her mouth just because guilt feels easier than forgiveness.”
The hospital door opened.
Evelyn stood there.
Weak.
Pale.
Angry.
Very much alive.
“Hannah.”
“Yes?”
“Can I speak to my husband?”
Hannah picked up Lily.
“Try not to kill him. The girls like him.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
Hannah left.
Inside, Dominic stood.
Evelyn stared at him.
Eleven months.
No hug.
No kiss.
Not yet.
“Did you believe the body was mine?” she asked.
Dominic answered truthfully.
“Eventually.”
“Why?”
“Your wedding ring was found in the car.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Julian took it.”
“I know now.”
“He showed me photographs of the funeral.”
Dominic went still.
“He wanted me to see you bury me.”
Evelyn’s voice shook.
“He told me you moved on.”
“I didn’t.”
“He told me the girls forgot me.”
“They didn’t.”
Evelyn began crying.
Dominic moved forward.
Stopped himself.
She closed the distance.
Then hit him in the chest.
Once.
Again.
Again.
“You should have found me.”
“I know.”
“You should have known.”
“I know.”
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
She hit him again.
Then collapsed against him.
Dominic held her.
Neither spoke for a long time.
Outside, Hannah pretended not to hear.
Later Evelyn told them everything.
Julian had used shell companies to steal from both criminal and legitimate Vale operations.
When Evelyn discovered it, she gathered records.
Julian learned she was planning to expose him.
So he staged the crash.
The burned body belonged to a woman already dead.
Dental records were falsified.
Evelyn was moved to Saint Catherine under the name Claire Morris.
“Why keep you alive?” Hannah asked.
“Passwords.”
“To what?”
“Accounts Julian couldn’t access.”
Dominic frowned.
“What accounts?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Not money.”
She took Hannah’s hand.
“Evidence.”
Hannah’s pulse jumped.
“Where?”
Evelyn looked toward the triplets.
“When I realized Julian knew I had copied everything, I hid the final drive somewhere nobody would search.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“The music box?”
“That was only part of it.”
“Then where is the rest?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Inside Bellafonte.”
Hannah stared.
“My restaurant?”
Evelyn nodded.
“I met Daniel there the week before I disappeared.”
Hannah felt cold.
Evelyn continued.
“He hid the master copy.”
“Where?”
“He never told me.”
Hannah remembered her father.
Bellafonte.
Her job.
Peter.
The gas-leak lie.
The police arriving almost immediately.
Her face changed.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
Hannah stood.
“Peter hired me personally.”
“So?”
“I applied to thirty restaurants.”
She looked at Dominic.
“Bellafonte was the only one that called me back.”
Evelyn went pale.
May you like
Hannah whispered:
“I don’t think my job there was an accident.”
