Chapter 9 - What Evelyn Was Really Afraid Of
The adoption agency confirmed receipt of my message.
They could not promise a response.
Owen was twelve.
His adoptive parents had the right to decide how to approach him.
I understood.
What I could no longer understand was Evelyn.
Why save the letters?
Why not destroy them?
Why keep proof?
Caroline found part of the answer in Ruth’s papers.
A handwritten note from Ruth dated weeks after Julian’s funeral.
It mentioned me.
Not by name.
“The girl.”
Ruth wrote that I was emotionally unstable after Julian’s death and “likely to create dependency on the Hale family if encouraged.”
I read the sentence twice.
Daniel swore under his breath.
Another note referred to my child as “Julian’s responsibility.”
Not grandson.
Not baby.
Responsibility.
Then we found the reason money had mattered so much.
Julian had not left an inheritance.
He had left debt.
Medical bills from an earlier accident.
Credit cards.
A truck loan.
The Hale family had already spent years financially rescuing him.
Ruth was tired.
Evelyn was angry.
They viewed my pregnancy as one more crisis Julian had left them to solve.
Adoption made the problem finite.
Clean.
Administrative.
I felt sick.
Then Caroline found a letter Evelyn had written to Ruth.
It was never mailed.
Mom, I know she is young, but we should at least ask what she wants before deciding what is best.
I stared at the sentence.
Evelyn had once questioned Ruth.
Daniel did too.
“So what changed?”
Caroline kept reading.
The letter ended:
I cannot spend another ten years cleaning up Julian’s decisions.
There it was.
Not hatred of me.
Resentment toward Julian.
I had become the person available to punish after he died.
Daniel leaned back.
“This explains the adoption.”
I shook my head.
“It doesn’t explain the letters.”
No.
That part came later.
Years later.
After Evelyn met me again.
After she realized the woman her son loved was the same nineteen-year-old she had helped push out of the family.
May you like
And suddenly the letters became dangerous.
Because if Owen ever found me, Daniel might discover what his mother had done.
