Chapter 5
Evelyn read her letter aloud because Sarah asked her to.
It had been written the year after Sarah left. Evelyn apologized for the argument, asked for a chance to speak, and said there would always be a room for her at home.
Sarah listened without moving.
“When I asked Adrian if you’d written,” she said, “he told me you thought I should make my own way.”
“I never said that.”
“I believe you now.”
The words did not fix twenty years. I could see that in both their faces.
Helen carried the letters to the police detective, who arranged to collect them properly. She also took copies of Sarah’s share certificate and the letter from her father.
Evelyn called her longtime attorney, Mr. Bell, from the hospital corridor. I heard her say Adrian’s name, then ask him not to discuss the call with anyone else.
When she returned, she looked older than she had beneath the gala chandeliers.
“Adrian oversees several family companies,” she said. “If he hid Sarah’s ownership, I need to know what he’s done.”
Sarah held my hand.
“I went there for rent money,” she said. “I didn’t know I was walking into this.”
“You went because you were trying to take care of me,” I said.
“I should have told you where I was going.”
“Yes.”
She smiled sadly.
“I’m learning you’re old enough to tell me that.”
The doctor wanted Sarah to stay another night. Mrs. Vega offered to take me home, but I did not want to leave the hospital.
Evelyn arranged for a small room nearby. Mrs. Vega stayed with me. She did not let Evelyn turn the room into a place full of gifts.
“Rosie needs sleep and her own clothes,” she said. “That’s enough.”
Evelyn nodded and sent someone to collect my school bag with Mrs. Vega’s help.
In the morning, Adrian came to the hospital.
He arrived carrying flowers. I was sitting beside Sarah when he appeared in the doorway.
“I heard you were hurt,” he said.
Sarah’s hand closed around the sheet.
“Did you come to see whether I remembered?”
His smile slipped.
“I came because you’re my sister.”
“You told me our mother was dying.”
“Someone at the office misunderstood a medical appointment.”
“You wrote it in your letter.”
He looked at Evelyn, who had just stepped into the room behind him.
“Mother, I can explain.”
“Not to Sarah right now,” Evelyn said. “Leave.”
Adrian set the flowers down.
“I didn’t hurt her.”
“Then you can speak with the detective,” Sarah replied.
A hospital security guard was already approaching. Adrian left without another word.
I watched through the window as he walked down the hall. He had been the one person at the gala who looked more frightened of my locket than surprised by it.
An hour later, the police detective spoke with Sarah. She remembered more of the garage now. Adrian had asked her to sign a document giving up a claim to future payments from the company. She refused until an independent attorney could read it.
“He said I should think about Rosie,” Sarah told the detective. “Then a man came from behind me and took the envelope.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Dark jacket. Gray hair. I didn’t see his face.”
“Did Adrian stop him?”
“No. I remember Adrian standing by the car.”
The detective asked what happened next.
“I tried to hold on to the envelope. The man pulled it away. I fell against the wall. After that, I remember waking up in the hospital.”
I gripped the chair. Sarah reached for me.
“I’m here,” she said.
The detective wanted to know whether the garage camera showed the man. Helen had learned that the hotel used a separate company to manage that entrance. The police had requested its footage.
Mr. Bell came in that afternoon. He was gentle with Sarah, though she clearly remembered him from childhood and was not ready to trust anyone from the Whitmore office.
He said her father’s letter described the shares she had inherited. There were records to review before anyone could say what she was owed.
“I don’t want you making promises to Rosie,” Sarah told him.
“I won’t,” he said. “I’ll bring you facts.”
Evelyn asked whether Sarah and I would stay with her while Sarah recovered.
Sarah shook her head.
“I need to go home.”
“Our apartment has stairs,” I reminded her.
“I know.”
Mrs. Vega offered us her ground-floor place for a few days. Evelyn offered to pay for a hotel near Sarah’s doctors. Sarah accepted the hotel only after Evelyn agreed it would be in Sarah’s name and that we could leave whenever she wished.
I thought Evelyn looked hurt.
Then I remembered the glass of water.
Being sorry meant letting Sarah choose.
That evening, the detective called Helen. The garage footage had been found.
Adrian appeared on it.
May you like
So did the man who had taken Sarah’s envelope.
I recognized him as the hotel manager who had helped us search.
