Chapter 17 - GARRETT COULD HAVE HAD EVERYTHING WITHOUT BETRAYING HERSamuel confirmed it by dawn.
Charles had amended the Mercer trust sixteen years earlier.
If his biological son could ever be legally identified, that child would receive forty percent of Mercer Holdings.
Evelyn retained sixty percent.
Garrett had been chasing control of something that was already partly his.
When Garrett learned, he laughed for almost a full minute.
Not happily.
Brokenly.
“I destroyed my marriage for something I already owned.”
Evelyn stood beside his hospital bed.
“You destroyed it because you chose to.”
“I know.”
“Your mother manipulated you.”
“Yes.”
“Richard manipulated you.”
“Yes.”
“But you still chose.”
Garrett nodded.
“Yes.”
No excuses this time.
That mattered.
Not enough.
But something.
He looked at the twins sleeping in their bassinets.
“What are you naming them?”
Evelyn hesitated.
They had planned names together months earlier.
Garrett wanted Richard for the boy.
Eleanor wanted Caroline for the girl.
Evelyn suddenly hated both.
“I don’t know.”
Garrett smiled weakly.
“Don’t name him Richard.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Then Garrett said:
“I’m going to confess.”
“To what?”
“The forged documents. The guardianship scheme. The bank attempt. Everything.”
Evelyn studied him.
“Why?”
“Because saying I’m sorry means nothing if I keep protecting myself.”
For the first time, she saw the man she had once fallen in love with.
Not enough to repair what happened.
But enough to remember he had existed.
Garrett continued.
“I’ll sign away any claim to managing the twins’ assets.”
“That would be wise.”
“I’ll also transfer my Mercer shares into an independent trust for them.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Those shares are yours.”
“They came from Charles.”
“He was your father.”
“He wasn’t my dad.”
Garrett looked away.
“I don’t know if I ever had one.”
Evelyn thought about Charles.
Victor.
The strange ways biology and parenting had collided.
“Maybe being somebody’s father isn’t about DNA.”
Garrett glanced at her.
“No.”
His eyes filled.
“It’s probably about whether you step over them when they’re begging you for help.”
The words stunned her.
Garrett looked toward the window.
“I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Forgiveness did not belong to him.
Not yet.
Maybe never.
Detective Reed arrived.
Richard had escaped custody during a hospital transfer.
Victor was furious.
“How?”
Reed explained.
A false emergency.
Ambulance rerouted.
Two officers injured.
Richard disappeared.
Again.
Charles looked almost unsurprised.
“He planned contingencies for decades.”
Laura had turned over most of the archive in exchange for consideration from prosecutors.
But one file was missing.
Richard’s private ledger.
The evidence tying him to murders, bribery, sabotage and offshore accounts.
Without it, prosecutors had crimes.
Not the whole network.
Evelyn looked at Eleanor’s recording.
“Did she say where it is?”
Laura shook her head.
“Only that Richard would kill anyone who found it.”
Victor looked toward the twins.
“Then we move Evelyn.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“I’m done moving.”
“Richard is free.”
“I know.”
“He’ll come for you.”
“Good.”
Victor stared.
Evelyn continued.
“He needs something.”
“The trust?”
“No. The ledger.”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“And he thinks we have it.”
“So we make him believe we do.”
Garrett looked alarmed.
“You want to bait Richard?”
“Yes.”
“You just had twins.”
“And everyone keeps mentioning that like childbirth removed my brain.”
Garrett almost smiled.
Then stopped himself.
Evelyn planned the trap at Blackwood Mansion.
The same mansion where everything began.
A press release would announce that Evelyn had recovered Richard’s private ledger and would turn it over to federal investigators the following morning.
Victor hated the idea.
Reed loved its simplicity.
Charles said Richard would not resist.
Garrett volunteered to stay.
Evelyn refused.
“This is not redemption theater.”
“I’m not trying to be a hero.”
“Then why?”
Garrett looked at her.
“Because I locked that door.”
Silence.
“I want to be there when it stays open.”
Evelyn finally nodded.
That evening, she returned to the mansion.
The heavy door had been temporarily repaired.
The Persian rug had been cleaned.
The foyer looked almost normal.
But Evelyn remembered exactly where she had lain.
She stood there holding her daughter.
Victor carried her son.
Garrett remained several feet away.
Evelyn looked at the door.
Then said:
“Leave it unlocked.”
Victor nodded.
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At 11:47 p.m., the security cameras went dark.
Richard Blackwood had arrived.
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