Chapter 7 - The House by the Lake
Marcus pushed me behind the bedroom door just as another pane of glass shattered downstairs.
“Closet,” he whispered.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I spent years hiding from this woman in plain sight. I’m not hiding in a closet.”
His expression hardened.
“This isn’t pride. It’s survival.”
That word reached me.
Survival.
Not cowardice.
Not weakness.
I stepped into the closet but left the door open a crack.
Marcus disappeared into the hallway without another sound.
Downstairs, Evelyn’s voice drifted through the house like smoke.
“I know you’re here, Thomas. You always did run to dead women’s rooms when life became difficult.”
A second voice answered.
Thomas.
Calm, but strained. “You should not have come here.”
“Oh, Thomas. I came here decades ago. You were simply too blind to notice.”
I pressed one hand over my mouth.
The old floorboards creaked softly as I moved closer to the crack in the door.
From the hallway, I could see the top of the stairs.
Agent Cole’s voice came from somewhere near the kitchen. “Evelyn Blackwood, put your hands where I can see them.”
Evelyn laughed.
“You federal people are always so theatrical.”
“Hands.”
A pause.
Then Evelyn said, “I’m unarmed.”
Marcus answered from the shadows, “You have never been unarmed a day in your life.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said his name.
“Marcus Vale.”
The way she spoke it carried history.
“You should have stayed buried with the rest of your mistakes,” she added.
I gripped the doorframe.
Marcus did not respond.
Thomas said, “What did you do to Anna?”
Evelyn sighed.
“Still asking the wrong question after all these years.”
“What did you do?”
“I saved you from a girl who would have dragged your name through scandal.”
“She was carrying my child.”
“She was carrying leverage.”
The air seemed to vanish from the house.
I thought of my mother standing pregnant and alone while people with money decided whether I was a child or a problem.
Thomas’s voice broke. “You knew.”
“Of course I knew.”
“And Peter?”
“Peter wanted money. Anna wanted virtue. You wanted romance. I used what everyone brought to the table.”
A chair scraped.
Agent Cole said, “That is enough. You’re under arrest.”
Evelyn laughed again.
“No, Agent Cole. I am a seventy-two-year-old woman with excellent attorneys and a documented history of charitable service. I am here because I feared for Elena’s mental state after a traumatic medical episode. You are here without a warrant in a private residence owned through a trust you cannot even name.”
Marcus said, “You broke a window.”
“One of my security men did, after no one answered the door. We were concerned.”
My blood turned hot.
Concern.
The favorite costume of monsters.
I stepped out of the closet.
Marcus saw me first from the stair landing. His eyes flashed a warning.
I ignored it.
I walked down the stairs slowly, one hand on the railing, my body still weak but my anger holding me upright.
Evelyn stood in the sitting room below.
She wore black now, elegant and severe, like mourning clothes for someone she planned to kill again. Two men in suits stood near the broken window. Agent Cole had her weapon trained on them. Thomas stood by the fireplace, shaking with rage.
Evelyn looked up at me.
Her smile bloomed.
“There she is. Our little performer.”
I reached the bottom step.
“Did you poison my mother too?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Marcus moved closer but did not stop me.
Evelyn tilted her head.
“What a cruel thing to ask.”
“Then answer.”
“You are overwrought.”
“You ripped my insulin pump from my body in front of three hundred witnesses.”
“A misunderstanding.”
“You drugged my wine.”
“Unproven.”
“You threatened my mother on tape.”
Her eyes flickered.
There.
The first crack.
“The tape is a fake,” she said.
“You haven’t heard it.”
“I don’t need to hear trash to smell it.”
Agent Cole stepped forward. “Evelyn Blackwood, you are under arrest for assault, evidence tampering, and suspected attempted poisoning pending further charges.”
Evelyn looked bored.
One of her men shifted.
Marcus’s weapon rose.
“Don’t.”
The man froze.
Then headlights swept across the windows.
More vehicles arrived outside.
For one terrifying second, I thought Evelyn had brought an army.
Then Detective Harris entered through the broken back door with four officers behind him.
Evelyn’s smile finally faded.
Not because she was afraid of police.
Because she hated witnesses she couldn’t buy quickly.
The officers restrained her security men first. Then Detective Harris approached Evelyn.
“Hands behind your back.”
She looked at him like he was furniture.
“Do you know what happens to men who touch me without permission?”
Behind me, Thomas whispered, “Not enough.”
Evelyn heard him.
Her eyes moved from him to me.
“You really think he wants you?” she asked. “A sick little secret wrapped in medical debt and mommy issues?”
Thomas stepped forward.
“Elena is my daughter.”
The words struck the room.
For a moment, even Evelyn seemed still.
Then she smiled.
“Oh, Thomas,” she said. “You poor old fool.”
She looked at me with satisfaction.
“Did he tell you about the test?”
My pulse jumped.
“What test?”
Thomas frowned. “Evelyn.”
She laughed softly.
“The paternity test Anna begged for before she died. The one that proved Thomas Ashford was not your father.”
The room went silent.
Thomas turned pale.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
Evelyn’s eyes glittered.
“She kept the result in that precious deposit box, didn’t she? Or did your new friends only show you the sentimental parts?”
My mind raced back to the box.
Envelope.
Flash drive.
Photos.
Cassette tape.
Had there been more?
Had Celia removed something?
Had Marcus?
Had Thomas?
Evelyn leaned closer as Detective Harris cuffed her wrists.
“You’ve spent one day pretending you’re an heiress,” she whispered. “Wait until you learn what you really are.”
As they led her toward the door, her gaze locked on mine.
“Ask Marcus why he was really at Bellefleur Manor.”
Marcus’s face turned unreadable.
My stomach dropped.
Evelyn was taken outside into the flashing blue lights.
No one moved.
I looked at Marcus.
“What did she mean?”
May you like
He did not answer fast enough.
And that was answer enough to make my trust split down the middle.
