Chapter 6 - THE ANSWER HE COULD NOT GIVE
Evan had negotiated billion-dollar acquisitions without revealing fear.
He had faced hostile boards, government investigations, and reporters determined to turn every family tragedy into a headline.
None of it prepared him for Ellie’s question.
“Would you have wanted me?”
She stood in the doorway with one sock missing and her stuffed rabbit held tightly against her chest.
Evan knelt so they were at eye level.
“I didn’t know about you.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Leah almost smiled despite the situation. Ellie had inherited her refusal to accept carefully constructed responses.
Evan looked at Leah, then back at the child.
“Yes,” he said. “I would have wanted you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I already regret every day I missed.”
Ellie studied him with unsettling seriousness.
“You can’t regret something you didn’t know.”
“I can regret that people prevented me from knowing.”
“Mom said maybe you wouldn’t believe her.”
Evan’s voice became rough.
“She was right to worry.”
Leah looked away.
Ellie approached him and examined his face.
“You have the same line here.”
She touched the small crease between his eyebrows.
“My teacher says I make that face when someone gives a bad answer.”
Evan laughed quietly.
It was the first unguarded sound Leah had heard from him.
Ellie did not hug him.
She simply sat on the couch and placed her rabbit between them.
“This is Captain Bun. He knows when people lie.”
Evan nodded solemnly.
“Then I’ll be careful.”
For the next hour, Ellie asked questions.
Did Evan like strawberry ice cream?
Could he swim?
Had he ever broken a bone?
Why did his house have so many rooms?
Did he know Sabrina was mean?
The final question ended the fragile calm.
“What did Sabrina do to you?” Evan asked.
Ellie looked at Leah.
Leah answered.
“She sent me the wedding invitation. She threatened to tell Ellie the truth if I didn’t bring the DNA report.”
“Sabrina sent it?”
“There was no signature.”
“But you believe it was her.”
“I recognized the perfume on the envelope.”
Evan appeared unconvinced.
Leah’s anger returned.
“She used the same perfume when she came to my apartment nine years ago.”
“I’m not calling you a liar.”
“You are searching for another explanation.”
“I am trying to understand why the woman I’m supposed to marry would conceal my child.”
“Because Ellie controls eight percent of Hale Meridian.”
Evan looked toward Nora.
Nora explained the trust amendment.
With each sentence, his expression hardened.
“When were you planning to tell me this?” he asked.
“At the proper time,” Nora replied.
“My wedding is in six weeks.”
“That is why the proper time disappeared.”
Evan turned toward Theo.
“Bring Sabrina here.”
Theo hesitated.
“If she is involved, confronting her now may force her accomplices to destroy evidence.”
“Then watch her.”
“We already are.”
A notification appeared on Theo’s phone.
He read it and looked at Evan.
“Sabrina left the penthouse twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is she going?”
“The old Vale estate.”
Leah recognized the name.
Arthur Vale had lived there before his death.
Sabrina’s father had controlled security at the Hale mansion during the year Leah disappeared.
Evan stood.
“We’re going.”
“You are,” Leah said. “Ellie and I are leaving the city.”
“The person who set the fire knows where you are.”
“Because your security brought us here.”
Theo shook his head.
“This location is not connected to Hale Meridian records.”
“Then who knows about it?”
Evan and Theo exchanged a look.
Daniel.
Before anyone could say his name, the lights went out.
Ellie grabbed Leah’s hand.
A backup lamp switched on above the door.
Theo drew his phone and checked the camera system.
“Someone is inside the building.”
A slow knock sounded from the hallway.
Three deliberate knocks.
The same pattern Leah had heard at her apartment.
Evan moved in front of Ellie.
Theo opened the security monitor.
A woman stood outside.
Her gray hair was wet from rain. Her coat was torn, and fear filled her face.
Nora gasped.
“Rosa.”
Theo unlocked the door.
Rosa Bennett stumbled inside.
“I don’t have much time,” she said.
Evan caught her before she fell.
“Where have you been?”
“They kept me at the old clinic.”
“Who?”
Rosa looked at Leah.
“Daniel’s people.”
She pulled a brass key from her pocket and pushed it into Evan’s hand.
“Your father’s private room beneath the mansion.”
Evan stared at it.
“My father is dead.”
May you like
Rosa shook her head.
“That is what he paid us to say.”
