Chapter 8
My mother’s hand stopped on the page.
My father stood outside the room and looked up at the brass plaque that still read Guest Room.
I had lived there for three years.
I had never truly had a room of my own.
Adrian finished reading the lease and looked at my packed luggage.
“If she was already planning to leave, why did she still refuse to end our engagement?”
The detective heard him and turned around.
“What do you mean? Were you and Claire engaged?”
Adrian nodded.
“Yes. Our families had arranged for us to marry. When Claire returned three years ago as the Hart family’s biological daughter, I told her that I had always loved Evelyn. Evelyn and I grew up together, and I would not replace her as my fiancée.”
“I asked Claire to sign an agreement ending the engagement. She later sent me a message saying she had signed it and asked Evelyn to deliver the document.”
The detective looked at him.
“Did you receive it?”
Adrian turned toward Evelyn.
“No. Evelyn said she had never seen it.”
Evelyn immediately explained.
“I really never received it. Claire may have said she signed it, but that does not mean she actually gave it to me.”
The police contacted the Hart family lawyer who had handled the engagement agreement.
After checking his records, the lawyer confirmed that I had signed the document in front of him three years earlier.
The original had not remained at his office.
I told him someone would pick it up for me.
The document was collected that same afternoon.
The detective asked the lawyer to send over the pickup record.
While they waited for the email, the technician restoring the burned badge called.
Some of the ash had been removed from the back.
The owner’s initials were still incomplete.
Only the first letter could be confirmed.
It was E.
My father frowned.
Evelyn was not the only person in the Hart family whose name began with E.
Several former employees of the Hart Foundation and the abandoned clinic also had names beginning with that letter.
For now, the letter did not point to one specific person.
The police still added Evelyn’s name to the list of people they needed to investigate.
Her face turned slightly pale when she saw it.
“You suspect me because of one letter?”
No one answered.
A notification sounded from the computer.
The lawyer’s email had arrived.
Adrian walked over and printed the record.
The pickup date was the same day I signed the agreement.
The name of the person who collected it was clearly printed on the form.
Evelyn Hart.
Her signature and ID number appeared underneath.
The lawyer’s voice came through the phone.
“The original document ending the engagement was collected three years ago.”
“Evelyn Hart was the person who picked it up.”