Daniel moved in front of Rebecca.
"Evelyn."
She stood beneath the hallway light, the small silver key pinched between two fingers. The hammer hung loosely at her side.
Mara watched through the phone propped against Daniel's hand.
Evelyn looked exhausted rather than threatening.
"Put the hammer down," Daniel said.
She glanced at it as though she had forgotten she was holding it.
"I'm not going to hurt anyone."
"Then put it down."
She slowly placed it on the floor.
Rebecca stared at the key.
"You took it from the box?"
Evelyn nodded.
"When?"
"This morning."
Daniel's face hardened.
"You were in our house."
"Yes."
"How?"
"Rebecca's key."
Rebecca looked startled.
"I never gave you my key."
"You left your purse at Thomas's house when he died."
Rebecca's expression changed.
"You copied it."
"Yes."
Mara felt another boundary casually crossed in the name of old secrets.
Daniel asked, "Why take the key?"
"Because I knew what Thomas put in the locker."
"The letter."
Evelyn nodded.
"And Elliot's backpack."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you take the envelope too?"
"I didn't know Rebecca had already taken it."
Rebecca looked toward the cassette player.
"Did you start Mom's recording?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Evelyn looked at her.
"I wanted to hear her confession once before destroying everything."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Everything?"
"The locker."
"How?"
Evelyn looked toward the hammer.
Daniel almost laughed.
"You're going to smash a storage locker open?"
"No. The hammer was for the cassette."
Rebecca stepped forward.
"You were going to destroy Mom's voice."
Evelyn looked ashamed.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because she's dead."
"So is Elliot."
"I know."
"So is Thomas."
"I know."
Rebecca's voice rose.
"Then why are the living people still cleaning up after all of you?"
Evelyn flinched.
Daniel held up a hand.
"Where is locker 317?"
"East Harbor."
"We know that."
Evelyn looked surprised.
"Thomas documented everything."
"Of course he did."
Daniel stared at the key.
"Give it to me."
"No."
His expression hardened.
"Evelyn."
"Daniel, listen to me."
"I've been listening to people explain why I shouldn't know things since my son was born."
Evelyn looked toward the phone, perhaps remembering Mara was watching.
Daniel continued.
"Give me the key."
"If you open that locker, you can't undo it."
"That's the point."
"You don't understand what the letter says."
"Then tell me."
Evelyn closed her fist around the key.
"I wrote terrible things."
"Did you damage Dad's cars?"
"Yes."
Robert made a sound beside Mara's bed.
Evelyn heard him through the phone.
"Robert?"
He stepped closer.
"I'm here."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Robert's voice became unexpectedly calm.
"For which part?"
She looked down.
"All of it."
"That's too broad."
Mara glanced at him.
Robert continued.
"Did you cut the first brake line?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Partially."
Robert closed his eyes.
"Why?"
"I wanted you frightened."
"Of what?"
"Your car failing."
"Why?"
"Because I thought if Patricia believed you were irresponsible, she'd leave."
Robert stared at the screen.
"You could have killed me."
"I know that now."
"You knew it then."
"No."
"Evelyn."
"I convinced myself it wasn't deep enough."
Robert laughed bitterly.
"Apparently everyone in this family became an amateur mechanic when angry."
Evelyn wiped her face.
"I had Thomas show me how the system worked months earlier."
Rebecca stiffened.
"And then you showed me."
Evelyn looked at her.
"Yes."
"Why?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Because Patricia had photographed me near Robert's car."
Rebecca stared.
"So you wanted photographs of me doing the same thing."
"Yes."
Daniel looked sick.
"You used a twelve-year-old as cover."
"I never intended anyone to blame Rebecca for anything serious."
Rebecca laughed sharply.
"You put my fingerprints beneath the car."
"I thought if Patricia confronted me, I could say Rebecca and I had been playing."
"Did you drug me?"
Evelyn began crying.
"Yes."
Robert whispered something Mara could not hear.
Rebecca stood perfectly still.
"What did you give me?"
"Half a sleeping tablet crushed into lemonade."
Daniel's face hardened.
"You drugged a child."
"I know."
"No, don't say you know. You keep saying it as though recognition now changes what you did then."
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
Rebecca asked, "Did you take me to Dad's office?"
"No."
"Then who did?"
"Patricia."
"Why?"
"To confront me."
Rebecca frowned.
Evelyn continued.
"She brought you because she wanted to prove I'd drugged you."
"How would bringing me prove that?"
"You could barely stand."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
"What happened?"
"Patricia found me behind the office."
"Near Dad's car?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"She told me she had photographs. She told me if I came near Robert again, she'd show him everything."
"Then?"
"I told her about the pills Thomas had sold her."
Robert stared.
"You blackmailed her."
"Yes."
"With custody."
Evelyn nodded.
"I told her if she exposed me, I'd tell Robert she'd been buying medication secretly."
Rebecca looked nauseated.
"So Mom backed down."
"At first."
"What about the brake line?"
Evelyn shook her head.
"I didn't touch it that day."
"Then how did my fingerprints get there?"
Evelyn looked at Rebecca.
"Patricia put them there."
Silence.
Rebecca stared.
"What?"
"She took your hand."
"No."
"She was furious with me. She said if I ever tried to frame her family, she could frame me back."
Daniel frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
Evelyn looked at him.
"She wanted me to believe Rebecca could become evidence against me."
"How?"
"Because I had been the one teaching Rebecca about cars. If police ever found Rebecca's prints on damage to Robert's vehicle, Patricia could tell them I had put her there."
Rebecca sat down.
Mara tried to reconstruct the scene.
Two frightened women, each holding evidence against the other.
A drugged child between them.
Neither willing to tell Robert the truth.
"Did Patricia cut the brake line then?" Mara asked.
Evelyn looked toward the phone.
"No."
"But she confessed to cutting it."
"That night."
"At the house?"
"Yes."
Mara understood.
"The print Thomas found near the brake assembly was from the afternoon confrontation, but the actual second cut happened later."
Evelyn nodded.
"Thomas assumed those events were the same."
Rebecca whispered, "So I never touched the cut."
"No."
Relief crossed Rebecca's face and immediately became grief.
It changed nothing about Elliot's death, but it removed one burden she had carried for the last hour.
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
"Why did Elliot take your letter?"
"He found it in my apartment."
"What did it say?"
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"Things I had written after Robert refused to leave Patricia."
"Threats?"
"Some."
"Against Patricia?"
"Yes."
"Against Dad?"
"No."
"Did Elliot intend to show them to him?"
"Yes."
"Why chase him?"
"Because I was ashamed."
Daniel stared.
"That's it?"
"I was pregnant. Elliot had called me unstable. He said if Robert saw the letter, he'd make sure I never went near him again."
"You risked your son's life because you were ashamed?"
Evelyn looked directly at him.
"My son's?"
Daniel froze.
Mara felt the phrase land.
Evelyn immediately realized what she had said.
Daniel's expression changed.
"You called Elliot your son."
"No."
"You did."
"I meant—"
"Don't."
Evelyn backed away.
Daniel stared.
"Was Elliot your son?"
Robert stood beside Mara.
"What?"
Rebecca looked between them.
"Evelyn?"
She began shaking her head.
Thomas's complicated instructions suddenly took on another meaning for Mara.
Names matter in this family.
Relationships rewritten.
Who belongs.
Daniel stepped closer.
"Who was Elliot's father?"
"Thomas Vale."
"Thomas was your brother."
"No."
Silence.
Robert stared.
"What did you say?"
Evelyn covered her face.
"Thomas wasn't my brother."
Daniel looked as though the floor had shifted.
"Then who was he?"
"My husband."
No one spoke.
Rebecca whispered, "What?"
"We separated when Elliot was six."
Robert's face went blank.
"You told me Thomas was your brother."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because after we separated, I used my maiden name again. People assumed. I let them."
Daniel stared.
"Then Elliot was your son."
"Yes."
"And Thomas was his father."
"Yes."
Mara remembered the first lie Daniel had told her in the hospital.
My grandfather's half brother.
Then cousin.
Now neither.
Elliot was Daniel's half brother.
Robert understood at the same moment.
"Oh, God."
Daniel turned toward him.
"If Evelyn was pregnant with me after Elliot died…"
Robert nodded weakly.
"Then Elliot and you shared a mother."
Evelyn began crying.
Daniel looked toward the sleeping newborn visible through Mara's camera.
His decision to name his son Elliot suddenly carried a relationship he had not known existed.
Mara felt her chest tighten for him.
"Why hide that?" Daniel asked.
Evelyn's answer came quietly.
"Because Thomas believed you were his."
Daniel stared.
"What?"
"After Elliot died, Thomas knew I was pregnant. He assumed we'd reconciled before the crash."
"Had you?"
"No."
"Did he ever know Dad was my father?"
"Eventually."
"When?"
"Years later."
"How?"
"I told him."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Apparently everyone gets told eventually except the child involved."
Evelyn looked away.
"Thomas hated Robert even more after that."
Robert whispered, "That's why he targeted Daniel with the box."
"Partly."
"Partly?"
Evelyn looked toward the cedar box visible behind Daniel.
"He also loved Daniel."
Daniel's face tightened.
"He barely knew me."
"He watched you."
"What?"
"From a distance. The same way I did."
Daniel looked disgusted.
"Apparently my childhood had an audience."
Mara wished she could reach through the phone.
Evelyn held up the storage key.
"Thomas left locker 317 for you because it contains everything he couldn't make himself destroy."
"Elliot's backpack."
"Yes."
"Your letter."
"Yes."
"What else?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Documents about your birth."
Daniel stared.
"Original records?"
"Copies. Letters between Robert and me. Patricia's notes."
"Anything else?"
Evelyn looked at Rebecca.
"One videotape."
"Of what?"
"Thomas interviewing Patricia."
Robert went pale.
"When?"
"Three months before her recorded confession."
Daniel held out his hand.
"The key."
Evelyn stared at it.
Then at him.
Finally she crossed the room and placed the key in his palm.
Daniel closed his fingers around it.
"Thank you."
Evelyn began crying harder.
"Don't thank me."
Daniel said nothing.
Mara looked at the clock.
It was nearly midnight.
"Nobody goes to the locker tonight."
Daniel looked toward the phone.
"Mara—"
"No."
He almost smiled despite himself.
"Why?"
"Because you're exhausted, Rebecca is in shock, and I'm still in a hospital bed holding the only Ellison who hasn't lied to me yet."
Rebecca gave a broken laugh.
Even Robert smiled faintly.
Daniel looked at his son through the screen.
"Fair."
Mara continued.
"Tomorrow morning. Together."
Evelyn shook her head.
"I can't."
Daniel looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because when Thomas died, I made one more mistake."
"What?"
"I went to locker 317."
Daniel's hand tightened around the key.
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Did you take anything?"
"No."
"Then what did you do?"
"I added something."
"What?"
Evelyn's eyes filled.
"A letter to you."
Daniel's expression softened only slightly.
"What does it say?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because if I could say it aloud, I wouldn't have needed seventeen pages."
Rebecca looked toward her.
Daniel slipped the key into his pocket.
"Then I'll read it."
Evelyn nodded.
Mara thought the confrontation had ended.
Then Rebecca's phone rang.
She looked at the number.
Her face changed.
"Who is it?" Daniel asked.
"East Harbor Storage."
She answered.
"Hello?"
Everyone waited.
Rebecca listened.
"What do you mean?"
Her eyes moved toward Daniel.
"When?"
Another pause.
"Did you call police?"
Daniel stepped closer.
Rebecca put the call on speaker.
A man's voice filled the room.
"Ms. Ellison, I'm sorry, but we had a break-in approximately twenty minutes ago. Your number is listed as the emergency contact for unit 317."
Daniel stared at Evelyn.
She looked genuinely terrified.
The manager continued.
"The lock was forced."
Mara's heart sank.
"Is anything missing?" Rebecca asked.
"We can't inventory private contents."
"Was the unit empty?"
"No."
Rebecca exhaled.
"But whoever entered left with a backpack and a document case."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Elliot's backpack.
The original letter.
Possibly the strongest surviving evidence.
"Do you have cameras?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Did you see who entered?"
The manager hesitated.
"Police are reviewing it now."
"Was it a man or woman?"
"A man."
Everyone looked toward Robert.
Robert recoiled.
"I've been here."
Daniel ignored the implication.
"Could you identify him?"
"Not clearly. Hooded jacket."
Rebecca asked, "Anything distinctive?"
The manager paused.
"He appeared older. Maybe sixties."
Evelyn went pale.
Mara noticed.
"Evelyn."
She stared at the floor.
"Who?"
No answer.
"Evelyn, who else knew about locker 317?"
Her lips trembled.
"One person."
Daniel stared.
"Who?"
Evelyn looked at him.
"Thomas wasn't alone when he spent his last year investigating Elliot's death."
"Who helped him?"
Evelyn whispered, "Luis Calder."
Robert frowned.
"The mechanic?"
"Yes."
Daniel's expression tightened.
"Why would Luis steal the evidence?"
Evelyn shook her head.
"He wouldn't."
"Then why mention him?"
"Because Luis died nine years ago."
Silence.
Mara felt cold.
"Then who?"
Evelyn looked toward Robert.
"His older brother."
Robert's face changed.
Daniel asked, "Name?"
Evelyn answered.
"Samuel Ortega."
Rebecca stared.
"The bank security guard."
Evelyn nodded.
Mara felt the final pieces of Thomas's investigation suddenly become less trustworthy.
The witness who had supposedly seen a woman and child near Robert's car.
The witness whose statement helped implicate Rebecca.
The witness connected directly to Thomas's mechanic.
Daniel understood.
"Thomas wasn't independently verifying the story."
Evelyn shook her head.
"No."
"He was relying on two brothers."
"Yes."
Robert whispered, "Why?"
Evelyn looked toward the cassette player.
"Because Samuel Ortega wasn't only the security guard."
Daniel waited.
"What was he?"
Evelyn's answer came quietly.
"Thomas's business partner in the insurance fires."
Click here to continue reading: PART 13: The Witness Thomas Trusted Most Had Helped Create the Fraud, and His Theft From Locker 317 Suggested Elliot Had Found Something Bigger
I Woke After the Delivery to Discover My Husband Had Made One Permanent Decision While I Was Still Unconscious
Part 12 of 20
