“Evelyn.”
The woman slowly looked at her.
“There are things your father wanted to tell you.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because he thought the right time would come.”
Claire held the photograph.
“Who is she?”
Evelyn looked at the picture.
Then she took a deep breath.
“She was someone your father cared about very much.”
Claire waited.
“But she wasn’t the only secret he left behind.”
The room became silent.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn looked toward the window.
“It means your father created that trust for a reason.”
“I know. To protect me.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“But there was another beneficiary listed.”
Claire felt a chill.
“What?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Someone you never knew existed.”
Claire stared at the photograph in her hand.
A stranger.
A hidden name.
A secret from her father’s past.
For the first time since Julian’s betrayal, Claire realized something.
The battle she had just survived might not have been the only truth waiting to be uncovered.
She looked back at Evelyn.
“Who is the other beneficiary?”
Evelyn opened her briefcase slowly.
Inside was an old file.
A file she had apparently carried for years.
She placed it on the table.
Then she whispered:
“Your father had another child.”
