Chapter 11 - WILLOW STREET
Victor's denial sounded too quick to be a lie.
Officer Hayes heard it too.
"If not you, then who?"
Victor's jaw tightened. "Ask Evelyn."
Evelyn looked down.
That was all the answer Walter needed.
Police obtained a warrant for the Willow Street property that evening.
I went home with Daniel for the first time since lunch.
Our apartment felt unfamiliar.
He stood in the kitchen while I cleaned the cuts on my knees.
"Let me help," he said.
"No."
He nodded.
For once, he accepted the boundary the first time.
"Are you leaving me?"
I looked up.
"I don't know."
His eyes filled.
"I love you."
"You watched someone hurt me."
"I know."
"You believed her before you even asked me."
"I know."
"Stop saying you know like knowing fixes it."
He sat down hard.
"Then tell me what to do."
"Figure out why you need me to tell you."
My phone rang.
Walter.
Police had entered the Willow Street house.
They found men's clothes, Evelyn's jewelry, company files, and photographs covering six years.
The man living there was not Victor.
His name was Leonard Price.
Former chief financial officer of Carter Industrial.
Fired by Walter seven years earlier for falsifying expense reports.
And according to Walter, Leonard hated him.
"There's more," Walter said.
"What?"
He went quiet.
"They found a safe. Inside were letters from Evelyn. Hundreds of them."
Daniel leaned closer to hear.
Walter's next sentence changed the shape of the family.
"The earliest letter is dated thirty-four years ago."
Daniel was thirty-three.
He stared at me.
May you like
Neither of us spoke.
Walter whispered, "Rebecca... I don't think Daniel is my biological son."
