Chapter 4 - My Uncle Knew My Face
Evelyn pushed me toward a side hallway.
“Move.”
I did not.
“You knew I was alive for twenty-three years.”
“And if you want a twenty-fourth, stop arguing.”
That got me moving.
The housekeeper led us through a kitchen bigger than Mara’s entire home. Evelyn opened a service door behind the pantry.
A narrow passage descended toward the garage.
Before I stepped through, I heard the front door open.
A man’s voice carried across the marble foyer.
“Mother?”
Julian.
I had seen him in business magazines. Silver hair. Expensive suits. The polished face of Carter Maritime.
Evelyn shoved me into the passage.
“Do not trust anything he tells you.”
Then she closed the door.
I should have left.
Instead I pressed my ear against the wood.
Julian entered the kitchen.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” Evelyn asked.
“Don’t insult me.”
“You saw a stranger on a camera.”
“I saw Thomas’s daughter.”
My blood went cold.
He had recognized me instantly.
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“She is not your problem.”
“She became my problem the second she walked into this house.”
“You told me she died.”
Silence.
I stopped breathing.
Then Julian said, “She was supposed to.”
I backed away from the door.
There it was.
The answer I had come for.
Except Evelyn’s next words ruined it.
“Your bomb failed once. Don’t make the mistake of trying again.”
I nearly dropped the brass key.
Julian had planted the bomb.
I turned toward the garage stairs.
Then Julian laughed.
“My bomb?”
His voice changed.
“You still think I ordered it?”
Evelyn said nothing.
“I paid Mercer because Thomas told me to.”
My hand froze on the railing.
Thomas.
My father.
Julian continued.
“He wanted the yacht destroyed.”
“That is a lie.”
“Then ask Emily why her father signed the purchase authorization.”
I slipped down the stairs before either of them discovered me.
At the garage door, my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Me.
Standing in Evelyn’s foyer five minutes earlier.
Below it was a message.
YOUR FATHER DID NOT DIE TRYING TO ESCAPE THE BOMB.
I stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
HE MADE SURE IT WENT OFF.
Then a document loaded beneath it.
An invoice for marine demolition charges.
Authorized by Thomas Carter.
My father’s signature was at the bottom.
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