Chapter 13 - EVAN’S LAST ORDER
Z
Evan was already serving a sentence that would keep him in prison for most of his life.
Yet somehow, he was still finding ways to make people afraid.
The letter intercepted at Barbara’s prison was brief.
It contained no direct threat, no obvious instruction, and no words that could easily be used against him. But investigators believed it was coded. The inmate who attacked Barbara had received money through a relative, routed from an account connected to one of Evan’s former associates.
Barbara survived.
But when Detective Pierce told her Evan might have ordered the attack, something inside her finally broke.
She asked to speak to me.
Samantha insisted on coming.
Naomi tried to stop us both.
“This could be another manipulation,” she warned. “Barbara has spent decades lying. One conversation won’t change that.”
“I know,” I said. “But if she knows what happened to my father, I need to hear it from her.”
The prison visitation room was quieter than the last time I saw her.
Barbara sat behind the reinforced glass in a wheelchair, her face pale beneath a purple bruise along her jaw. For the first time, she looked old.
Not weak.
Just exposed.
Samantha sat beside me.
Barbara noticed her first.
“Lydia’s daughter,” she said.
“Samantha Grant,” my sister replied.
Barbara smiled faintly. “You have her eyes.”
Samantha’s expression did not change. “You don’t get to say her name like you knew her.”
Barbara looked away.
Then she turned to me.
“Evan is worse than I ever was.”
I almost laughed.
“That is not the defense you think it is.”
“It isn’t a defense.” Her voice trembled. “It’s the truth.”
“You taught him.”
“Yes.”
The word came out so quietly that I nearly missed it.
Barbara pressed her fingers against the glass.
“I taught him that fear was useful. That people obey when they’re desperate. That a family survives by protecting its own.”
“Your family survived by destroying everyone else’s,” I said.
She closed her eyes.
For several seconds, she looked like a woman trying to hold back a lifetime of memories.
Then she spoke.
“Thomas discovered the Redwood account. He found proof of what I did to Lydia. He found the payments to Richard Vale. He confronted me in his study.”
My body went numb.
“What happened?”
“He said he was going to the police. He said he would tell Claire everything.”
“And you killed him?”
Barbara’s eyes opened.
“I did not mean to kill him.”
The phrase was familiar.
Evan had said the same thing about Marcus.
Barbara continued before I could speak.
“I had medication. Something to make him sleep. Something to make him confused. I only wanted more time to move the money and protect Evan.”
“Protect Evan from what?” Samantha asked.
Barbara swallowed.
“From the fact that he knew.”
The room fell silent.
I stared at her.
“He knew about Lydia?”
“He knew about the accounts. He knew I had paid Richard. He was only nineteen, but he understood enough. He told me he would keep quiet if I made sure Thomas never treated him like an outsider.”
My stomach turned.
Evan had been involved long before he became CEO.
Long before he married me.
Long before I ever suspected him.
“He helped you?” I whispered.
Barbara nodded once.
“He changed the medication label. He told the nurse Thomas had asked for privacy. He was there when Thomas collapsed.”
The glass between us suddenly felt too thin.
Samantha’s chair scraped against the floor as she stood.
“You let him marry her,” she said, pointing toward me. “You let him marry Claire after he helped kill her father?”
Barbara began to cry.
Not dramatically.
Not beautifully.
Her tears were ugly, silent, and late.
“He said marrying Claire would secure everything,” Barbara whispered. “And I let myself believe I could control him.”
“You couldn’t,” I said.
“No.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
“Now he wants Redwood.”
Naomi, who had been standing near the door, stepped closer.
“What do you mean?”
Barbara’s voice lowered.
“There is another account. Not the foundation account. Thomas created it after Lydia died. He called it the contingency account.”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Evan does.”
“Then why tell us now?”
Barbara looked toward the ceiling.
“Because Evan thinks he can use it to buy protection. He thinks he can still get out.”
My phone buzzed before anyone could say another word.
A secure message from Detective Pierce appeared on the screen.
Emergency. Evan has been transferred. Location sealed. Prison officials say it is for cooperation in a federal investigation.
Naomi read it over my shoulder.
“That means he has information,” she said.
“Or leverage,” I replied.
Barbara grabbed the phone-side receiver with shaking hands.
“Claire,” she said. “You have to find the account before he does.”
I looked at her.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
For once, Barbara told the truth without using it as a weapon.
Then she said the one thing I never expected.
May you like
“Ask Evan about the red ledger. Your father hid it where he knew only you would look.”
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