Chapter 5
Michael agreed to speak only with an attorney present.
Detective Collins let me watch from behind the interview-room glass.
My brother looked terrible.
His expensive shirt was wrinkled.
His hair was messy.
For the first time in his life, Michael looked afraid.
Collins sat across from him.
“Start with Evelyn.”
Michael rubbed his face.
“She contacted me six months ago.”
“Why?”
“She said Sarah’s father stole millions from my biological father.”
“So you knew Henry Walker was your father?”
Michael hesitated.
“Evelyn told me.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
I closed my eyes.
So he had known.
He simply hadn’t told me.
Collins continued.
“What did Evelyn want?”
“She said Lily’s trust was funded with money Robert took from Henry.”
“And you believed her?”
“She showed me records.”
“Forged records?”
Michael looked down.
“I didn’t know.”
I almost laughed.
He always knew just enough to benefit and never enough to accept responsibility.
“Describe the plan.”
Michael swallowed.
“We were going to document Sarah and David as careless.”
“How?”
“Missed medications. Unsafe food. Medical incidents.”
My fists tightened.
“Did you alter hospital records?”
Michael nodded.
“I paid someone.”
Collins leaned forward.
“Who?”
“A records technician named Aaron Pike.”
Another arrest waiting to happen.
“What happened at the luncheon?”
Michael’s voice dropped.
“Evelyn said she would put a tiny amount of peanut residue on Lily’s dessert.”
I felt sick.
“She knew Lily’s allergy could be fatal.”
“She said the injector would be nearby.”
“But she stole it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Michael started crying.
“I didn’t know she would.”
I wanted to hate him without complication.
But seeing my brother cry reminded me of the boy who once carried me home after I fell off my bicycle.
Then I remembered Lily struggling to breathe.
Whatever brother I remembered had made his choice.
Collins slid the smartwatch transcript across the table.
“You asked about the second injector.”
Michael nodded.
“We planted one in David’s car.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“To make it look like he had forgotten it.”
“So Evelyn stole Sarah’s injector, and you placed another in David’s car?”
“Yes.”
“Creating evidence of parental negligence.”
“Yes.”
Collins paused.
“Who is Emily Walker?”
Michael’s expression changed.
He looked toward the one-way glass.
He couldn’t see me.
But somehow it felt like he knew I was there.
“Ask Evelyn.”
“Michael.”
He lowered his voice.
“She’s alive.”
My heart started pounding.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She contacted Evelyn. I overheard them.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“What did she want?”
Michael swallowed.
“She wanted Lily protected.”
I froze.
Collins leaned forward.
“Why would she care about Lily?”
“Because Emily knows what the trust really is.”
“What is it?”
Michael looked frightened.
“It’s not just money.”
He explained that Robert had discovered corruption inside Mitchell-Walker Development decades earlier.
Bribes.
Fraudulent construction contracts.
Money laundering.
Instead of reporting everything immediately, Robert collected evidence.
The trust held more than investments.
It controlled a private archive.
Whoever became trustee at Lily’s twenty-first birthday would receive access.
I felt cold.
“So Evelyn wasn’t only after three million dollars.”
Michael shook his head.
“She wants the archive.”
“Why?”
“Because her name is in it.”
Collins stared at him.
“For what?”
Michael whispered, “A death.”
The room went silent.
“Whose death?”
Michael looked toward the glass again.
“Henry Walker’s.”
David’s father.
Michael’s biological father.
Collins’s voice hardened.
“What happened to him?”
Michael whispered, “Evelyn says it was an accident.”
May you like
I closed my eyes.
After everything I had heard, that was enough to make me certain it wasn’t.
