Chapter 17 - A Witness Against Himself
When Evelyn confronted Marcus with the clip, he looked older than he had the day before.
"I was there to stop the deal," he said. "Celeste told me the documents were ready. I wanted to see what she was doing before I warned you."
"You could have called."
"Yes."
"Instead you watched them set a trap for me."
"Yes," he said again. "I was afraid."
Evelyn had known Marcus since she was a child. He had sent birthday cards, attended graduations, and stood beside Thomas's grave. Now she saw how a decent man could make himself useful to terrible people by waiting for a safer moment to speak.
"You should tell the prosecutor all of it," she said.
He did. His statement described years of pressure from Celeste and Vale, the access agreement he'd witnessed without proper review, and his knowledge that Celeste wanted to force Evelyn into an asset transfer. He supplied contemporaneous emails to support it.
Price's case grew stronger. Investigators sought charges against Pierce for destroying records and against other participants where evidence supported specific offenses. Daniel requested an interview through his lawyer.
Meanwhile, Evelyn met with the Hart Restoration employees. She expected them to be furious that her private disaster had put their livelihoods at risk.
A foreman named Ruth stood up. "Your dad brought me back after my husband died. We don't work here because Daniel Whitmore wears nice suits. We work here because you pay us on time and you show up."
Evelyn cried then, at last, in front of thirty people and a box of stale donuts.
That night, Noah received a call from the hospital. Someone had admitted Owen Pierce with a broken jaw after he attempted to contact a lawyer.
Before losing consciousness, Pierce had told a nurse four words:
May you like
On her desk, Ruth placed a photo of Thomas standing on a ladder, grinning while he fixed a sign in the rain. 'He was terrible at taking days off,' Ruth said. 'You got that from him.' Evelyn looked around at the workers eating donuts and teasing one another. These were the people her father had worried about when bills came due. She promised herself that winning a public fight wouldn't matter if she forgot the people standing quietly beside her.
"Vale ordered the crash."
