Chapter 15
“Do you know his name?”
“I only know what he left behind.”
“What did he leave?”
Daniel exhaled.
“A business card.”
“Whose?”
His answer made the room tilt again.
“Dominic Vale’s.”
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PART 4 - ENDING: The invitation changed everything, but Richard’s quiet warning unsettled Evelyn 1025
PART 4 - ENDING
“Dominic Vale’s.”
Daniel’s answer remained between us, impossible to misunderstand.
Richard’s hand closed gently around the folder.
“Evelyn,” he said, “you don’t have to go tonight.”
“I know.”
The words came more steadily than I felt.
“I’m going.”
Richard studied my face.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
I shook my head.
“No. Not because I don’t want you there. Because I need to hear what Meredith left me without an audience.”
“I’m not an audience.”
“You’re the person who has been protecting me for fifteen years.”
His expression softened.
“Perhaps it is time you stopped making protection the price of our friendship.”
The statement touched something deep inside me.
“I’m not asking you to stay away. I’m asking you to trust me enough to let me go.”
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he nodded.
“All right. But take Margaret’s driver.”
“I can drive myself.”
“You’ve had champagne.”
“I haven’t touched it.”
He glanced at the full glass in my hand.
“Then let the driver take you anyway. There is no virtue in proving you can carry every burden alone.”
I almost smiled.
That had always been Richard’s way of loving people—without claiming them.
Daniel sent the address. Margaret arranged for the foundation’s driver to take me to Wilmette, and Richard made two calls before I left. One was to the foundation’s counsel. The other was to a private attorney he trusted, a woman named Celia Moreno, who agreed to meet us at the house.
Us.
I noticed the word, but I did not correct him.
The drive north was quiet. Snow had begun to fall, light flakes dissolving against the windshield. Chicago’s towers faded behind us, replaced by dark trees, wide lawns, and older houses set back from the road.
I looked down at Meredith’s note.
Please confirm directly with Evelyn before filing. Do not rely on Mr. Vale’s office.
The handwriting had been careful but hurried.
I remembered Meredith only as a name attached to documents. A woman who had supposedly helped settle my father’s estate and protect the trust. Yet the note made her feel present—thoughtful, cautious, and worried enough to leave a trail for me to follow.