~ Evie ~
I slam the door harder than I mean to. Jack looks up, grins that crooked grin. “Hey, you. Thought you were at Dad’s longer.”
“Yeah, I was,” I say, voice coming out flat. “Come inside. We need to talk.”
His smile drops a little.
“Evie, what’s going on? You look like you saw a ghost.”
I sit on the couch, Donald on my lap. The envelope is in my back pocket. It feels heavy, like it weighs more than paper. I pull it out, unfold the letter, and hand it over. “Marcus sent this. Yesterday. No return address, just showed up in the mail.”
Jack takes it. His eyes scan fast. I watch his face. First he frowns, then his jaw tightens. He reads the whole thing twice. The hospital record copy, the affidavit from that nurse Celina. Blood types that don’t match. Tom paid her cash the day I ca
