Chapter 4: Leave With Dignity
1586 Words
Evelyn's POV:
I stepped back from the window so fast that I bumped into the wall behind me. The man outside did not move. He just stood there beside the black car with his hands in his coat pockets, looking up at the house like he had all the time in the world.
My phone buzzed again.
"Aunt Mirabel gave me this number. I know this is sudden, and I know you have no reason to trust a stranger. But I have been searching for you for fifteen years. Please, just give me five minutes."
My throat was tight. I typed back with shaking fingers. "How do I know you are who you say you are?"
His reply came fast. "Your birth name was Evelyn Ada Valentine. You were born on the seventh of March at Saint Grace Hospital in the capital. You had a small birthmark shaped like a crescent moon on your left ankle. Our mother, Sarah, named you after her own mother."
I looked down at my left ankle. The birthmark was there, barely visible now, faded by years, but still shaped like a tiny crescent moon. I had never shown it to anyone, not even Richard.
Before I could reply, Tonia's voice drifted up from downstairs, sharp and loud. "Justina, bring me some tea. The green one, not that cheap stuff Evelyn buys."
I slipped my phone into my pocket and picked up my suitcase. Whatever was happening outside that gate, I could not deal with it while I was still inside this house. I needed to leave first. I needed to breathe.
I carried my suitcase down the stairs, one step at a time. The annulment papers sat on the kitchen counter where I had signed them. I picked them up and held them against my chest.
Tonia was sitting on the living room sofa with her legs curled up, flipping through a fashion magazine. She did not look injured at all. The limp was gone, the tears were dry, and she was smiling at something on the page.
She looked up when she heard me. "Oh, you are leaving already? That was quick."
"Where is Richard?"
"In his study, on a call. But he told Justina to check your bags before you go." Tonia smiled sweetly. "Just to make sure you are not taking anything that does not belong to you."
The words hit me like a slap, but I kept my face calm. "Fine. Check whatever you want."
Justina walked over and unzipped my suitcase right there on the marble floor. She pulled out my clothes one by one and laid them across the tile like she was sorting laundry at a yard sale. Two cotton dresses. Three pairs of jeans. A worn cardigan Aunt Mirabel had knitted for me. My toothbrush, my face cream, and a paperback novel with a cracked spine.
That was everything. Three years of marriage, and my entire life fit into one small suitcase with room to spare.
Justina held up the cardigan. "This looks old. Is it from the house?"
"My aunt made it for me."
She dropped it back onto the pile. Tonia leaned forward from the sofa, watching with her chin in her hand. "Honestly, Evelyn, I almost feel sorry for you. You lived in a mansion for three years and you do not even own a decent handbag."
"I did not marry Richard for handbags."
"Then why did you marry him?"
Because a kind old woman was crying and begging me to save her grandson's life, and I could not say no.
I did not answer. I crouched down and packed my things back into the suitcase, folding each piece carefully, taking my time, refusing to let them see me rush.
When I stood up, Richard was at the top of the stairs, watching. He wore a different shirt now, and his hair was slightly damp. He looked at my suitcase, then at the clothes that were still partly unfolded, then at Justina, who stood to the side with her hands behind her back.
"You are leaving now?" he asked.
"Yes."
He came down the stairs slowly, and each step echoed in the quiet house. When he reached the bottom, he looked at the annulment papers in my hand.
"You signed them."
"You asked me to."
He took the papers and flipped to the last page. I watched his eyes move across my signature, and for just a second, his brows pulled together, just a tiny movement, there and gone. Then his face went smooth again.
"I will have the lawyer file these tomorrow. The apartment on Fifth Street will be transferred to your name within the week, and the settlement will be in your account by Friday."
"I do not want the apartment, and I do not want the money."
The room went quiet. Even Tonia stopped pretending to read her magazine.
Richard stared at me. "What?"
"I said I do not want any of it. Keep your apartment and keep your money. I am leaving the same way I came in, with nothing."
"Evelyn, do not be ridiculous."
"There is nothing ridiculous about it. You married me because your grandmother needed someone, and I said yes because I owed her a debt. The debt is paid now. We are even."
His jaw tightened. "This is not a game. You cannot survive out there with nothing. Where will you go?"
"That is no longer your problem, Richard."
I picked up my suitcase and walked toward the front door. My shoes clicked on the marble, and I counted each step because counting kept me from crying.
"Evelyn."
I stopped, but I did not turn around.
"At least take the settlement. I am not going to let people say the Williams family threw you out on the street."
"Then maybe you should have stopped your housekeeper from dumping my clothes on the floor."
I opened the door and walked out into the sunlight. The air was cool, and the roses I had planted were swaying gently in the breeze, bright red petals catching the morning light.
The black car was still parked by the gate. The tall man still stood beside it. He was closer now, and I could see his face clearly for the first time. He had dark hair, broad shoulders, and a jaw that looked like it was carved from stone. His eyes were deep brown, and they were locked on me with a look I had never seen directed my way before.
It was the look of someone who had been lost and had finally, finally found what they were looking for.
"Evelyn?" His voice was deep, and it cracked on the second syllable.
I stopped walking. My suitcase sat between us like a wall. "Are you Benjamin?"
"Yes." He took one step forward, then stopped himself, like he was afraid of scaring me away. "I know you do not know me. I know this is a lot to take in. But I need you to know that we have been searching for you since the day you were taken from the hospital. Our mother spent every birthday of yours lighting a candle and praying that you were safe."
My eyes burned, but I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood.
"I am not asking you to trust me today," he said. "I am just asking you to let me drive you somewhere safe. Wherever you want to go. No questions."
Behind me, the front door opened again. Richard's voice cut through the morning air. "Evelyn, who is that man?"
I did not turn around. I kept my eyes on Benjamin, on this stranger who claimed to be my brother, on this man who had apparently spent fifteen years looking for a girl nobody else wanted.
"He is nobody you need to worry about," I said over my shoulder.
I rolled my suitcase through the gate, and Benjamin took it from my hand gently, like it was made of glass.
"Where would you like to go?" he asked.
Before I could answer, my phone rang. The screen showed Aunt Mirabel's name, and I answered it quickly. "Aunt Mirabel, I am okay. I just left the house."
"Evelyn, listen to me carefully." Aunt Mirabel's voice was shaking, and she never shook. In twenty years, I had never heard this woman sound afraid. "Justina, the housekeeper, she just called Sylvia. She told her you might be pregnant."
The ground tilted under my feet. I grabbed the gate to steady myself.
"Sylvia is on her way to the house right now, and she is bringing a doctor. Evelyn, you need to get as far away from there as possible. If that woman finds out about the baby, she will not let you keep it."
Benjamin was watching my face. "Evelyn, what is wrong?"
I looked back at the house one last time. Richard stood in the doorway, his phone pressed to his ear, and even from this distance, I could see his expression changing as whoever was on the other end spoke.
He lowered the phone slowly and stared at me with eyes I had never seen before.
"Evelyn," he called out, and this time his voice was not cold. It was not calm. It was something raw and strange and almost desperate. "Are you pregnant?"
Benjamin stepped between us, blocking Richard's view of me completely. "Get in the car," he said to me quietly. "Now.”
- Writer
