Chapter 3 - FOR EVAN ONLY
Claire was gone when Evan searched the hallway.
The front door stood half open.
Rain blew across the marble floor.
"Did she put this there?" Evan asked.
Helen shook her head too quickly.
"I don't know."
Inside was a photocopy of a death certificate and a handwritten note from Robert.
Mara Ellis died on October 14.
Exactly as Helen had said.
The death certificate listed the place of death as Route 17, six miles north of St. Matthew's Hospital.
Not the hospital.
Not complications from childbirth.
"She died in a car crash."
Helen closed her eyes.
"Yes."
"You let me believe she died having me."
"I know."
"My whole life, every birthday, I thought my birth killed her."
Helen's face collapsed.
"I know."
Evan nearly tore the paper in half.
Then he saw Robert's note.
If you are reading this, I failed to tell you while I was alive.
Mara was not only the woman I loved at the wrong time.
She helped build what this family owns.
Ask what happened to her shares.
Do not ask Martin unless you already know the answer.
Evan read the last sentence again.
Uncle Martin.
Robert's younger brother.
Family attorney.
Executor of the estate.
The man who had handled every contract, funeral paper, trust and tax filing for as long as Evan could remember.
Helen whispered, "Robert never told me he wrote that."
"Do you know what shares he meant?"
"I knew Mara worked with him when the company was small."
"Worked with him how?"
"Your father always called her a bookkeeper."
"He didn't."
A younger Mara stood beside Robert in front of the first Bennett & Cole office.
She was holding incorporation papers.
Under the photograph, someone had typed one sentence.
SHE OWNED TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT.
May you like
A second message arrived before Evan could respond.
THAT IS WHY SHE DIED.
