Chapter 15 - Evelyn's Confession
Evelyn stopped answering her phone.
Ryan and detectives drove to Charleston.
I stayed at the hospital with Grace.
The wait was unbearable.
Four hours later, Ryan called.
His voice sounded exhausted.
“She's alive.”
“What happened?”
“She was scared.”
“Of Diane?”
“Of what she knew.”
Evelyn finally confessed that Diane had used her identity for years.
Accounts.
Shell companies.
Even prescriptions.
Ryan asked about the receipt.
Evelyn broke down.
The medication had been prescribed to her after surgery.
A strong sedative.
Half the bottle disappeared during a family visit.
Evelyn never reported it.
“I thought I'd misplaced it.”
Years later, after Ryan's father died, she suspected Diane had taken it.
There was no proof the medication caused his death.
No proof Diane had given him anything.
The medical examiner had attributed his death to cardiac arrest.
Still, detectives reopened the file.
Ryan returned to the hospital just before dawn.
He looked older.
I reached for him.
“Come here.”
He sat beside me.
“I don't know if she killed him.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
“But I know he was afraid of her.”
“That matters.”
Ryan looked through the nursery glass at Grace.
“I spent years defending her.”
“You loved your mother.”
“I ignored things.”
“So did your father.”
He looked at me.
“That isn't comforting.”
“It isn't supposed to be.”
I squeezed his hand.
“It means manipulation works best on people who want to believe someone they love.”
Ryan leaned his forehead against mine.
For the first time in days, he allowed himself to cry.
Then his phone buzzed.
A bank alert.
North Pine Holdings had attempted another transfer.
This time, the bank froze it.
The login location appeared on the alert.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Ryan immediately called detectives.
Diane was leaving.
Police reached the terminal before her flight boarded.
They found her at the gate carrying one small suitcase.
Inside were sixty thousand dollars in cash.
Two passports.
Ryan's old phone.
And a sealed envelope addressed to him.
She was taken into custody.
Hours later, the detective brought Ryan the envelope.
Inside was a single handwritten page.
Ryan read it beside me.
Then he handed it over.
The first sentence made my stomach turn.
May you like
Ryan, one day you will thank me for what I did to your father.
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