Chapter 2 - ELEVEN DAYS
Evan did not sit down.
He could not.
"You told me she died in childbirth."
Helen wiped at her face.
"That is what your father wanted you to believe."
"And you went along with it."
"I was trying to keep this family together."
"There it is again."
Helen flinched.
"What happened during those eleven days?"
Helen stared at the floor.
"Mara hemorrhaged after the delivery, but she survived."
"Did she see me?"
"Yes."
The answer hit him harder than he expected.
"Did she hold me?"
Helen nodded.
He had spent his whole life imagining a woman who never got the chance to know him.
Now he had to imagine her knowing him and losing him anyway.
"Why didn't she take me home?"
Helen's face went tight.
"Because your father told the hospital there was no safe home for you to go to."
"Was that true?"
"No."
Helen forced herself to continue.
"Mara had an apartment, a job, savings."
"Then why?"
"Because Robert was terrified she would tell people the truth."
"About the affair?"
Helen shook her head.
"About the company."
Bennett & Cole had grown from one small construction office into a regional development company worth more than eighty million dollars.
Robert Bennett had been celebrated as the man who built it from nothing.
"What did Mara know?"
Helen pressed her lips together.
"Your father said she was confused."
"That wasn't my question."
"I don't know everything."
"What do you know?"
Helen looked toward a cabinet near the pantry.
It was an old oak cabinet Evan had seen every day of his childhood.
"She sent a letter."
"To me?"
"To your father."
"Where is it?"
Helen went pale.
"I burned it."
A thin line of fresh dust had been disturbed beneath the cabinet.
"What are you doing?"
He reached under the bottom trim and felt paper.
Helen's face emptied.
Evan pulled out a yellowed envelope sealed in plastic.
His father's handwriting was on the front.
Three words.
FOR EVAN ONLY.
Helen whispered, "That wasn't there yesterday."
May you like
Evan looked toward the hallway.
Someone else had been listening.
