Chapter 5 - THE VOICE INSIDE THE BRACELET
Theo took Leah and Ellie to a secure Hale Meridian apartment across the city.
Leah objected until he showed her the fire report.
The flames had begun inside her hotel room.
Someone had entered using a master key less than a minute after Leah answered Evan’s call.
Her laptop was gone.
The DNA report had burned.
The bed where Ellie had been sleeping was almost completely destroyed.
Leah stopped objecting.
Evan arrived shortly after midnight.
He entered the apartment alone.
For nine years, Leah had imagined seeing him again. Sometimes she screamed at him. Sometimes he apologized. Sometimes she walked away before he could speak.
She had never imagined standing barefoot in a borrowed sweatshirt while their daughter slept in the next room.
Evan looked older but not unfamiliar. Grief had sharpened his face. Responsibility had settled into the way he carried himself.
His gaze moved across Leah as though confirming she was real.
“You’re hurt.”
A red mark crossed Leah’s wrist where the stairwell door had struck her.
“I’m fine.”
“Theo said someone set fire to your room.”
“Theo also said you sent him before I called.”
“I ordered him to watch Nora Sloan after she attempted to access my father’s sealed archive.”
“Nora did not access it.”
“Someone used her account.”
Leah folded her arms.
“Do you still assume documents tell the truth simply because they appear official?”
The words struck him.
“You believe I should have ignored the bank records?”
“I believe you should have spoken to me.”
“I tried.”
“My telephone was disconnected by your family.”
“I went to your apartment.”
“After they removed everything.”
“Who is they?”
“Sabrina and her father.”
Evan’s jaw tightened.
“Sabrina said she never met you until after you left.”
“She came to my home while I was pregnant.”
He went still.
The room seemed to narrow around them.
Leah realized what she had said.
Evan took one step closer.
“You were pregnant?”
Theo entered before she could answer.
“The memory card is ready.”
Evan’s eyes did not leave Leah.
“Pregnant with whose child?”
Leah glanced toward the bedroom.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“After we know who is trying to erase the evidence.”
His expression showed that he understood more than she had said.
Theo connected the memory card to an isolated computer.
A video file appeared.
The recording showed Evelyn Hale sitting in the mansion library nearly twenty-six years earlier. Evan’s mother was pale and visibly frightened.
She spoke directly to the camera.
“If Evan is watching this, then Charles failed to destroy it.”
Evan leaned closer.
Leah watched his face change.
“I was told she died in an accident,” he said.
The recording continued.
“Charles believes the Hale trust belongs to him alone. It does not. The original controlling shares came from my family. I changed the inheritance conditions to protect Evan and any children he may have.”
Evan looked at Leah.
She stared at the screen.
“If Charles discovers the amendment, he will use Daniel to reverse it. Daniel is loyal only to power. Do not trust him.”
The recording flickered.
A door opened behind Evelyn.
She quickly covered the camera, but the microphone continued.
A man entered.
Charles Hale’s voice was unmistakable.
“Who were you speaking to?”
“No one.”
“You changed the trust.”
Evelyn did not answer.
Charles lowered his voice.
“If you threaten what I built, I will make certain Evan grows up believing you abandoned him.”
The recording ended.
Evan sat back.
“My father told me she died instantly.”
Nora entered from the hallway.
“She survived the first crash.”
Everyone turned.
Evan stood.
“What did you say?”
Nora placed her briefcase on the table.
“Your mother was taken to a private clinic. Charles prevented her from contacting you.”
“For how long?”
“Eleven months.”
Evan’s anger was quiet.
That made it more frightening.
“You knew?”
“I discovered it years later.”
“Did my father kill her?”
“No. She escaped the clinic.”
“Then where did she go?”
“I do not know.”
Evan looked at the bracelet.
“How did this return to Leah?”
Nora removed a document from her briefcase.
“Rosa Bennett found it in Charles’s study after his plane disappeared. She believed Leah’s daughter should have it.”
Evan’s attention shifted toward the closed bedroom door.
“Leah’s daughter.”
No one spoke.
He looked at Leah.
“How old is she?”
Leah felt every defense she had built begin to fail.
“Eight.”
His face lost color.
He turned toward the bedroom.
The door opened before Leah could stop him.
Ellie stood there holding her stuffed rabbit.
She looked at Evan for a long moment.
May you like
Then she asked the question she had been holding all day.
“Would you have wanted me?”
