Chapter 9
Evelyn looked shaken for only a moment.
Her eyes quickly filled with tears.
“I did pick up the document back then, but I accidentally lost it later. I was afraid Adrian would blame me, so I never told him.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You lost it and kept quiet for three years?”
Evelyn bit her lip.
“I didn’t do it on purpose.”
She looked at the badge on the table.
“I have never seen that badge either. The Hart family has many similar badges. You cannot suspect me because of a single letter.”
In the past, my parents would have immediately found an excuse for her.
This time, neither of them spoke.
Ethan took the pickup record and continued assisting the police.
That night, the police located Brian using the gas station footage.
He had not returned home.
He had not contacted anyone he knew.
He had checked into a motel near the state line with a fake ID. His luggage was packed, and he had a ticket to leave the state early the next morning.
When the police forced their way into the room, he was trying to climb out through the bathroom window.
Ten minutes later, he was on the floor in handcuffs.
At first, Brian refused to say anything.
He denied knowing me and denied ever visiting the abandoned clinic.
“That man in the video isn’t me. I’ve never seen that van. You can’t prove anything with one blurry photo.”
The police did not argue with him.
Ethan arrived at the station with records from the abandoned clinic.
After the clinic was abandoned, its main entrance remained locked. The electronic access system inside had never been fully removed.
On the night of the murder, the system recorded an old Hart family badge entering the building.
The entry time was 9:06 p.m.
There was no record of the badge leaving.
The police compared the badge ID in the access log with the number on the burned badge found in my hand.
They matched.
The police also traced the money Brian had received before the murder.
It had passed through two intermediary accounts before reaching a care services company that had closed years earlier.
The company was registered to Martha.
She was the caregiver who had looked after Evelyn and me during the first month after we were born twenty-two years ago.
The police placed the bank records in front of Brian.
They added the access log from the abandoned clinic and the gas station photographs.
“You can keep denying it, but the money, the van, and the badge you used all connect back to you.”
Brian stared at the evidence.
His expression slowly changed.
He remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.
“I was paid to do a job.”
“Who paid you?”
“Martha.”
“Who ordered the kidnapping? Was it Martha, or was someone else behind her?”
Brian looked up.
“It was Evelyn Hart.”
Outside the interview room, my father brought his hand down hard on the edge of the table.
My mother stood in front of the monitor without moving.
Brian admitted that Evelyn had given them my schedule in advance.
She knew I would not attend the engagement party.
She also knew I planned to leave the estate before the party began.
She ordered them to take me on the road and bring me to the abandoned clinic.
“She did not ask for a ransom?” the detective asked.
“No. She said no one could be left alive when it was over.”
Brian lowered his head.
“She told us to lock Claire in the treatment room at the back of the clinic. Then we were supposed to set the building on fire.”
“Why?”
Brian gave a short laugh.
“She said that as long as the biological daughter was alive, the fake daughter would always be fake.”
“Her parents and fiancé chose her now, but that did not mean they always would. She did not want to wait for them to regret it.”