Chapter 17 - The Man Emily Married
Thomas did not run.
That almost made Daniel trust him.
Almost.
“I’m going outside,” Thomas said. “I need air.”
Marcus blocked the doorway.
“Nobody leaves.”
Thomas looked offended.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then move.”
Daniel spoke.
“Stay.”
Thomas looked at him.
The command was simple.
The meaning was not.
After a long silence, Thomas stepped away from the door.
Emily began telling the story she had hidden for nearly four years.
She met Evan Cole at a charity auction.
At least, that was what she had believed.
He was quiet, funny and completely uninterested in Daniel’s money.
That was one reason she liked him.
Six months later they were engaged.
A year later they married.
Then, while Emily was pregnant with Noah, she found two passports hidden behind a panel inside Evan’s desk.
One said Evan Matthew Cole.
The other said Jonathan Evan Vale.
Same photograph.
Different birthday.
Different history.
Emily confronted him.
“He didn’t deny it,” she said.
“What did he tell you?” Daniel asked.
“That Evan Cole was the identity Bellweather gave him after he agreed to disappear.”
Richard had come upstairs and now stood silently near the basement door.
Daniel barely noticed him.
“Why did Bellweather give him a new identity?”
“Because he worked in their compliance division. He discovered they were moving money through shell charities and private family offices.”
“The Haven Foundation.”
Emily nodded.
“He knew Mom’s name before he knew mine.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“So meeting you wasn’t an accident.”
“No.”
The admission hurt her to say.
“Evan was supposed to get close to our family.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Rebecca.
Evan.
Two people sent into his family through relationships.
“Did he love you?”
Emily looked at him sharply.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he stopped doing what they told him to do.”
She wiped her face.
“Evan confessed everything. He gave me his real name. He wanted us to leave the country.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He begged me not to.”
“That was enough?”
“No.”
Emily’s voice cracked.
“He said the person controlling Bellweather was someone you would never believe could hurt you.”
Daniel looked toward Thomas.
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
Emily continued.
“I asked for a name. Evan refused.”
“Why?”
“He said if he spoke it before he had proof, the Steward would destroy us.”
Samuel finally spoke from the basement doorway.
“How did Evan die?”
Emily looked at him.
“You know how.”
Daniel answered instead.
“His car went over an embankment during a storm.”
Samuel’s expression fell.
“Was another vehicle involved?”
Emily turned pale.
“There were tire marks. Police said they couldn’t prove anything.”
Richard cursed under his breath.
Daniel remembered Catherine.
A road.
An accident.
A death no one had questioned hard enough.
Two years apart.
Same family.
Same hidden organization.
Marcus asked, “What about the key?”
Daniel looked at the brass key from the envelope.
Emily immediately recognized the number stamped into it.
“417.”
She took out her phone.
“Evan once rented a box at Lake Haven Federal Bank.”
Daniel stared.
“Near here?”
“Twenty minutes away.”
Thomas suddenly laughed.
Everyone looked at him.
“This is exactly what they want.”
Daniel’s voice became cold.
“Who are they?”
“Whoever is leaving envelopes in the rain.”
“And you think we shouldn’t open the box?”
“I think you’ve spent twelve hours following instructions from anonymous people and dead people.”
Richard gave a bitter smile.
“For once, he has a point.”
But Emily was staring at Thomas.
“What did you call him?”
Thomas frowned.
“Who?”
“My husband.”
“I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
Emily moved closer.
“At Christmas three years ago, you called him Jonathan.”
Thomas went completely still.
Daniel’s blood turned cold.
Emily whispered, “Evan told me I imagined it.”
Thomas opened his mouth.
No words came.
Then Marcus’s radio crackled.
One of the investigators downstairs spoke urgently.
“Marcus, we found something.”
“What?”
“A Bellweather personnel file.”
“Whose?”
A pause.
May you like
Then the answer.
“Thomas Mercer.”
