Chapter 5 - The Night of the Crash
James did not allow Richard inside.
Instead, he walked through the gates alone.
His uncle smiled.
“So the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?”
“A child appeared.”
James said nothing.
Richard sighed.
“You should have called me.”
“Why?”
“Because I've spent five years protecting you.”
“From Evelyn?”
Richard's smile disappeared.
That was enough.
“You remember her.”
“Not yet.”
Richard relaxed slightly.
James noticed.
“But I know she was my wife.”
Richard looked toward the mansion.
“Rebecca told you?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My wife did.”
Richard's face hardened.
James stepped closer.
“She left records.”
Richard recovered quickly.
“Evelyn was unstable.”
“Everyone seems desperate to tell me what she was.”
“Because you can't remember.”
“No. Because you can.”
Richard's eyes narrowed.
“You loved her. That much is true. You also became reckless.”
“And my crash?”
“An accident.”
“Was it?”
Richard stared at him.
Then smiled sadly.
“You're becoming the man you were before it happened.”
“Good.”
“No, James. It isn't.”
Richard returned to his car.
Before entering, he looked back.
“Ask Victor why he wasn't with you that night.”
The sedan left.
James returned inside.
Victor was waiting.
“You heard.”
“Yes.”
“Answer him.”
Victor's face tightened.
“I was supposed to drive you.”
“But?”
“You changed plans.”
“Why?”
“You received a call from Rebecca.”
James went still.
“She said Evelyn had been taken.”
The headache hit instantly.
Rain.
A phone vibrating.
Rebecca's voice.
They have Evelyn.
A warehouse.
James driving too fast.
Headlights.
Then a truck crossing the road.
James grabbed the wall.
This time the memory continued.
His car spun.
Glass exploded.
Then someone opened his door.
Not paramedics.
A man leaned inside.
Richard.
James collapsed.
When he woke, Luna was crying.
“Daddy!”
He found himself on the floor.
Victor knelt beside him.
James grabbed his jacket.
“Richard was there.”
Victor froze.
“At the crash?”
“He opened my door.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
James stood.
“Find Rebecca.”
It took six hours.
Not because she had fled Chicago.
Because she had never left the estate.
They found her in an abandoned servant tunnel beneath the eastern greenhouse.
She was carrying cash, passports and a handgun.
James waited in the wine cellar.
Victor brought her in.
Rebecca looked exhausted.
“Where were you going?”
“Away.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard will kill me.”
James studied her.
“You helped him.”
Tears appeared.
“At first.”
“Tell me everything.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“You won't forgive me.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
She looked at him for a long time.
“I loved you. Richard knew it. When you married Evelyn, he told me she was manipulating you. He said she was helping federal investigators.”
“Was she?”
“No.”
Rebecca's voice broke.
“I learned that later.”
James felt disgust.
“The crash.”
“I called you.”
“Yes.”
“I told you Evelyn had been kidnapped.”
“Why?”
“To get you onto Lake Shore Drive.”
“And Richard arranged the truck.”
Rebecca nodded.
James wanted to hate her cleanly.
Then she whispered, “But you weren't supposed to survive.”
Victor cursed.
Rebecca continued.
“When Richard realized you were alive but couldn't remember, everything changed. He bribed a neurologist. Your medication kept your memory suppressed.”
James stared at her.
“What medication?”
“The pills you've taken every night for five years.”
Silence.
James thought of the small white tablets prescribed for headaches.
Rebecca covered her face.
“I told myself I was protecting you.”
“You erased my wife.”
“I know.”
“You erased my daughter.”
“I didn't know Luna existed until yesterday.”
“Evelyn?”
Rebecca lowered her hands.
“I helped her escape.”
James stopped.
“What?”
“Richard ordered me to find her after the crash. She was pregnant. When I found her, I couldn't do it.”
“Do what?”
Rebecca whispered, “Kill her.”
James's hands curled into fists.
“So I gave her money. Papers. A place to disappear.”
“Then why did she end up homeless?”
“I kept sending money.”
“Until?”
“Six months ago.”
“What happened?”
“Richard discovered the transfers.”
James's heart sank.
Rebecca looked toward him.
“That was when Evelyn disappeared.”
“Luna said she died.”
“I don't think she did.”
James froze.
“What are you saying?”
Rebecca reached inside her coat.
Victor raised his weapon.
“Slowly.”
She produced a folded piece of paper.
“A message arrived three weeks ago.”
James opened it.
Four words.
I KNOW JAMES SURVIVED.
Underneath was a phone number.
“Evelyn?”
“I don't know.”
James called.
Disconnected.
Victor examined the paper.
“There are indentations.”
He shaded the page lightly with graphite.
A second message emerged from writing that had once rested on top.
An address.
James recognized the neighborhood.
South Chicago.
They arrived after dark.
The building was abandoned.
On the third floor, they found blood.
A broken chair.
Luna's old pink backpack.
And Evelyn's crescent pendant.
James picked it up.
Then a floorboard creaked.
Victor drew his gun.
A woman stepped from the darkness.
Thin.
Bruised.
Terrified.
James forgot how to breathe.
She had Evelyn's face.
But she wasn't Evelyn.
The woman raised trembling hands.
“My name is Hannah Park.”
James stared.
“Evelyn's sister?”
She nodded.
“Where is my wife?”
Hannah's eyes filled with tears.
“Alive.”
James took one step forward.
May you like
“Where?”
“Richard has her.”
