Chapter 11 - THE SECOND LETTER
Preston escaped across the roof.
Police sealed three blocks, but he disappeared before midnight.
Diane was arrested on conspiracy, kidnapping, fraud, and obstruction charges. She asked for a lawyer and said nothing else.
At 1:12 a.m., Evelyn found Lucas asleep in a chair at the police command room, still wearing the oversized waiter jacket.
His cheek was faintly swollen.
She sat beside him.
He opened his eyes. “Did you catch him?”
“Not yet.”
“Did you catch her?”
“Yes.”
Lucas nodded, then noticed Evelyn’s expression.
“What?”
“Diane said your mother hid something about my father.”
Lucas looked confused. “I told you everything.”
“I believe you.”
He reached into his shoe.
Evelyn stared.
Lucas pulled out a tiny folded square of plastic-wrapped paper.
“My mom told me never to keep everything in one place.”
“You had that the whole night?”
“I forgot until now.”
Inside was a second letter.
Evelyn recognized Rachel’s handwriting.
Evelyn,
If Lucas has reached you, then I failed to finish this myself. Charles was not Lucas’s father, no matter what Diane may try to make you believe. But he protected us because Lucas’s real father was dangerous.
Evelyn stopped.
Lucas’s face went blank.
“My dad?”
She continued.
His name is Preston Vale.
Lucas stood so suddenly the chair tipped over.
“No.”
Evelyn read the next line silently first.
Rachel had worked closely with Preston years before the fraud began. He had coerced her, threatened her job, then denied the child when she became pregnant. Charles learned the truth and helped Rachel leave.
Lucas backed away.
“He hit me.”
Evelyn’s throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“He knew?”
The final sentence answered him.
Preston knows Lucas is his son. That is why the key makes Lucas dangerous to him.
Lucas stared at the red mark still faint on his cheek.
Then Detective Ortiz entered, holding her phone.
“We found Preston’s car.”
“Where?” Evelyn asked.
Ortiz looked at Lucas before answering.
“Outside the address listed for his grandmother.”
The truth about Preston did not make Lucas feel less rejected. It made the rejection sharper. He sat under the fluorescent lights with Rachel’s letter in his lap and tried to understand how a man could know he had a son and still live thirty minutes away for eleven years without once knocking on the door.
“Did he ever send money?” Lucas asked May later over the phone.
“No.”
“Birthday card?”
“No, baby.”
“Did he ever ask if I was okay?”
May’s silence answered before her voice did. “No.”
Lucas pressed his knuckles against his mouth.
Evelyn sat beside him. “Blood can explain where you came from. It doesn’t get to decide who you are.”
“That sounds like something people say when the truth is terrible.”
“Sometimes it is.”
He looked at her. “Does it help?”
May you like
“Not immediately.”
That answer, because it was not pretty, seemed to help more than a speech would have.
