Chapter 19 - EVELYN MADE GARRETT SIT WHERE HE HAD LEFT HERThree weeks later, Evelyn asked Garrett to return to Blackwood Mansion.
He came alone.
No lawyer.
No expensive performance.
His shoulder remained in a sling.
Evelyn met him in the foyer.
The twins were elsewhere.
Victor waited outside.
Evelyn pointed toward the rug.
“Sit.”
Garrett frowned.
“What?”
“Sit where I was.”
He understood.
Slowly, Garrett lowered himself onto the rug.
Evelyn remained standing.
“This is where you left me.”
His eyes dropped.
“I know.”
“No. Look.”
He did.
She pointed toward the door.
“My handbag was there.”
Garrett followed her finger.
“I was trying to reach my phone.”
His jaw tightened.
“I remember.”
“I was terrified.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
He nodded.
Evelyn’s voice remained controlled.
“You’ve apologized for lies. For documents. For the trust. For your mother.”
Garrett looked up.
“But you haven’t explained this.”
She pointed to the rug.
“Why did you step over me?”
Garrett was silent for a long time.
Then:
“Because I was angry.”
“At me?”
“At everything.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“My mother called me that morning.”
He swallowed.
“She told me the bank had moved the appointment forward.”
“And?”
“She said if we missed it, Richard would come back.”
“You knew he was alive?”
“No. I thought she was speaking metaphorically. I thought she meant his old partners.”
“So you were frightened.”
“Yes.”
“And decided my labor was inconvenient.”
Garrett closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Evelyn felt tears burn.
“I begged you.”
“I know.”
“You looked annoyed.”
“I was.”
“That’s the part I can’t understand.”
Garrett’s voice cracked.
“I had spent so long treating everything as something to manage.”
“Including me.”
“Yes.”
“The babies.”
“Yes.”
“You saw us as problems.”
“In that moment…”
He struggled.
“Yes.”
Evelyn let the answer hurt.
Because it was finally honest.
Garrett continued.
“I wish I could tell you I misunderstood. That I panicked. That Mother forced me.”
“But?”
“I chose the bank.”
“The money.”
“Yes.”
“Over us.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Garrett looked at the door.
“When I heard Baby B’s heartbeat had dropped, something broke.”
“You came to the hospital because you were afraid?”
“Yes.”
“For the babies?”
“At first.”
Evelyn stared.
“At first?”
Garrett looked ashamed.
“I was also afraid Victor had reached you.”
There it was.
More ugliness.
More truth.
“You were still thinking about the trust.”
“Yes.”
“Even then.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn nodded slowly.
This was why apologies were easier than truth.
Truth made forgiveness difficult.
Sometimes impossible.
Garrett handed her a folder.
Divorce papers.
Signed.
Full custody to Evelyn.
No challenge.
No claim to Blackwood Mansion.
His Mercer shares moved into irrevocable trusts for the twins.
Evelyn looked at him.
“You’re giving everything away?”
“No.”
He smiled faintly.
“I still have more money than any reasonable person needs.”
“What will you do?”
“Testify.”
Richard’s federal case was expanding.
The ledger named judges, executives and politicians.
Garrett had agreed to provide evidence.
He could face prison for fraud and conspiracy.
“How long?”
“My attorney thinks eighteen months to four years.”
Evelyn felt something unexpected.
Not love.
Not forgiveness.
Sadness.
Garrett looked toward the rug.
“I want the twins to know what I did.”
“When?”
“When they’re old enough.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want you protecting my image.”
Evelyn thought of Charles.
Victor.
Eleanor.
Richard.
Every disaster had grown from adults deciding children could not handle truth.
“I won’t lie to them.”
“Good.”
Garrett stood.
At the door, he paused.
“I did love you.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“I believe you.”
Hope flashed across his face.
She continued.
“That’s what makes what you did worse.”
He nodded.
Then left.
The door remained open behind him.
Victor entered after several minutes.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Fair.”
She almost smiled.
Charles had begun cooperating fully with federal prosecutors.
Laura faced charges but received reduced treatment consideration for cooperation.
Richard remained in federal custody without bail.
Thomas accepted responsibility for kidnapping Evelyn’s son, though evidence supported his claim that he had prevented Richard from harming the baby.
Nothing was clean.
Nobody was completely innocent.
Except the twins.
Victor looked at the divorce papers.
“Done?”
“Almost.”
He hesitated.
“I wanted to ask something.”
“What?”
“Not as your security guy.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“As what?”
Victor smiled awkwardly.
“A man who recently learned he has a daughter.”
Evelyn waited.
“Would it be all right if I visited the twins tomorrow?”
Something in her chest tightened.
“Why?”
He looked embarrassed.
“I bought them something.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Books.”
“For newborns?”
“I’m learning.”
She laughed.
A genuine laugh.
The first in weeks.
“Yes.”
Victor smiled.
Then Evelyn’s phone rang.
Samuel.
His voice sounded strange.
“Evelyn, we found another provision in the trust.”
She sighed.
“Please tell me nobody else secretly owns forty percent.”
“No.”
“What is it?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Your father left instructions regarding the Blackwood Mansion.”
Evelyn looked around.
“What instructions?”
“It doesn’t belong to the Blackwoods.”
She froze.
“What?”
“Charles purchased the underlying debt twenty-two years ago through Mercer Holdings.”
Evelyn stared toward the doorway Garrett had just exited.
Samuel continued.
“Legally, upon Richard’s criminal conviction or default…”
May you like
He paused.
“The entire estate transfers to you.”
