Chương 10 - The Name on the Birth Certificate
Evelyn had seen her birth certificate dozens of times.
At least she thought she had.
The copy in the family safe listed Richard Cross as her father and Anna Cross as her mother.
Nothing unusual.
Detective Ortiz sent a request for the original county record.
It arrived electronically four hours later.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
The father's name was blank.
The document had been amended when she was three years old.
“That's impossible,” she said.
Ortiz pointed to a note at the bottom. “Richard legally established paternity later.”
Ethan stood behind her, silent.
Evelyn looked at him. “Did you know about this too?”
“No.”
For once, she believed him immediately.
They tracked down the attorney who handled the amendment. He was retired and living in Arizona.
He remembered the case.
Too well.
“Richard wasn't your biological father,” he said over video call.
Evelyn felt something inside her go still.
The old attorney continued gently. “He became your legal father after marrying your mother.”
“My mother was already married to him when I was born.”
“No.”
Evelyn stared at the screen.
“That marriage certificate was dated two months after your birth.”
She turned to Ethan.
He looked as shocked as she felt.
“Who was my biological father?”
The attorney hesitated.
“Your mother never named him in the filing.”
“But my father knew.”
“I believe so.”
“Why would he hide that?”
“I don't know.”
After the call, Evelyn went upstairs and opened the cedar box where she kept her mother's things.
Anna had died when Evelyn was nine.
Most of Evelyn's memories were soft: perfume, piano music, a hand smoothing her hair.
At the bottom of the box was an old photograph.
Her mother stood beside Richard at a summer picnic.
On her other side stood a young man Evelyn recognized instantly.
Daniel Cross.
Richard's younger brother.
Grant's father.
Miriam's late husband.
Evelyn's hands went cold.
On the back, in Anna's handwriting, were four words.
THE MEN I LOVED MOST.
Ethan read it over her shoulder.
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
“You're thinking—”
“No.”
But she was already thinking it.
If Daniel Cross was her biological father, then Grant was not her cousin.
He was her half-brother.
And Miriam had spent Evelyn's entire life looking at the daughter her husband had fathered with another woman.
The front door slammed downstairs.
A voice echoed through the house.
“Evie?”
Evelyn froze.
Grant.
May you like
He had a key.
And he had arrived uninvited.
