Chapter 22
Frederick had lost consciousness the instant he tried to say that word.
What had he been trying to say?
You?
Or a name?
The ambulance arrived quickly. Eight minutes.
When Frederick was lifted onto the stretcher and carried out, an oxygen mask covered his face, his withered hands hanging limply on either side of the stretcher.
Nason jogged alongside the stretcher. His wife chased after them from behind, wobbling in her heels until one caught in the carpet seam.
Guests in the main hall began leaving in twos and threes, their murmured conversations drowned out by the sound of broken glass being swept up.
Cedric led Evelyn out through the side exit of the estate.
As they reached the parking lot, hurried footsteps sounded behind them.
"Wait!"
Evelyn turned around.
Nason emerged from the side door of the estate, his tie loose, the wine stain on his cuff still wet, sweat covering his forehead.
He walked straight toward Evelyn, moving fast.
He stopped six feet in front of her.
His hands clenched at his sides, his chest heaving.
"Who are you?"
His voice was hoarse.
Evelyn looked at him.
Nason's gaze moved inch by inch across her face—eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips.
When he finished, his expression changed.
Not the dazed shock from earlier in the main hall. Something deeper. A painful kind of recognition.
"What was your mother's name?"
Evelyn didn't avoid the question.
"Lily. Lily Kendall."
Nason's body swayed backward.
He reached out and grabbed the hood of a nearby car, his five fingers pressing white marks into the metal surface.
He lowered his head, closed his eyes for two seconds, and when he opened them again, they were completely red.
"Lily Kendall..."
He repeated the name, his voice breaking into fragments.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, his fingers swiping across the screen several times until he reached the bottom of his photo album.
A yellowed old photograph.
He turned the phone screen toward Evelyn.
Evelyn looked down.
The photo showed a young woman.
White dress, hair down, a gentle smile. Delicate features, a jawline almost identical to Evelyn's.
That face.
The face she'd looked at for over a decade in her mother's vanity drawer.
Her mother.
Her young mother.
A hot, sour sensation surged through Evelyn's nose. She blinked hard, pushing the moisture back down.
Nason pulled the phone back, his voice as rough as sandpaper scraping stone.
"This person is my sister. Lily Hawk."
Evelyn's lips moved.
Wantan Song.
Not Lily.
Her mother had changed her surname. Changed Hawk to Kendall.
Nason took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, it carried a tremor.
"The family kicked her out twenty-seven years ago."
He paused, shoving both hands into his pockets like he was trying to control his emotions.
"I was only six at the time. Don't remember much. Just that it was pouring rain the day she left. Heavy, heavy rain. The water in the courtyard flooded up onto the steps. She was carrying a suitcase, walking out through the front gate."
His voice slowed.
"She didn't even take an umbrella."
Evelyn stood there, motionless.
The parking lot lights cast cold white light across her face.
Cedric stood two steps behind her, saying nothing.
Nason looked up at Evelyn, his eyes bloodshot.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-six."
Nason's Adam's apple jerked sharply.
Twenty-seven years ago, Lily had been kicked out. Twenty-six years ago, Evelyn was born.
The timeline matched.
He looked down at the photo on his phone again, then locked the screen and gripped it in his hand.
"Your mother... is she doing well now?"
Evelyn was silent for a moment.
"She died seven years ago."
Nason looked like something had struck him in the chest. His whole body leaned against the car hood.
He didn't speak.
Wind from the hillside swept through the parking lot, lifting the hem of his suit jacket.
A long time passed. Maybe ten seconds. Maybe thirty.
Nason wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
His voice finally steadied a little.
"Lily was kicked out back then because she was pregnant with a child she shouldn't have been carrying."
Evelyn's spine went rigid, vertebra by vertebra.
Nason looked at her.
"The man was from one of the other prominent families."
He paused, his lips touching and separating again.
"My father refused to acknowledge this daughter until the day he died, because that man destroyed our family's most important business deal."
His voice dropped on the last few words, so low it was almost inaudible.
"And killed my mother."
Evelyn's fingers clenched a handful of fabric at the side of her dress.
Her knuckles went white.
Cedric stepped forward from behind her, positioning himself at her side. He didn't touch her, but his presence alone was a silent form of support.
Nason sniffed and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
He looked into Evelyn's eyes, as if searching in them for the Lily from his memory, the one who'd walked into the downpour with her suitcase.
"You really look like her."
After saying this, he turned and walked back toward the estate.
After a few steps, he paused.
He didn't turn around.
"After my father wakes up... I'll talk to him."
His footsteps faded into the distance.
Evelyn stood in place.
The wind from the hillside blew a few loose strands of her pinned-up hair against her face.
Her eyes weren't red.
But her shoulders trembled faintly, uncontrollably.
Cedric reached out, took off his suit jacket, and draped it over her shoulders.
The same gesture as last time.
Evelyn lowered her head, both hands gripping the lapels of the jacket.
Her voice was soft.
"Cedric."
"Yeah."
"My mother wasn't a mistress."
Cedric looked at her.
Evelyn lifted her head, her eyes clear and dry.
"She was a daughter of the Hawk family."
Cedric didn't respond.
He opened the car door.
"Get in."
Evelyn slid into the back seat.
The door closed, shutting out the wind and the parking lot lights.
The car started.
Evelyn leaned back in her seat, her fingers touching the cold silver ring in her pocket.
The ring her mother had worn her entire life.
The Hawk family crest engraved inside the band.
She'd always worn it.
Never took it off. Not once.
Evelyn pulled out her phone, opened the encrypted album, and looked at that anonymous text message.
[A homewrecker's daughter—you can't wash that off no matter where you go.]
She locked the phone screen and gripped it in her palm.
Outside, streetlights passed one after another outside the car window, casting alternating light and shadow across her face.
Her lips moved.
Very softly.
No sound came out.
But Cedric saw the shape of her lips in the rearview mirror.
She was saying: I'll find out the truth.
Evelyn sat in front of her computer all night.
She'd finished the first draft of the second-phase implementation plan for the Pine Hill tourism project. She saved the file and rubbed her tired eyes. Dawn was just breaking outside the window. Sophie's bedroom door was still closed, with the occasional sound of her turning over in bed.
Evelyn washed her face, changed into a clean shirt, and was in the entryway putting on her shoes, about to leave.
Sophie's voice drifted out from the bedroom, thick with sleep.
"What time is it?"
"Six-thirty."
"Are you insane?"
Evelyn pulled open the door, one foot stepping out, then froze mid-step.
Sebastian was standing in the hallway.