Chapter 12 - Evelyn’s Testimony

Vermont police brought Evelyn to a hospital and arranged protected transportation back to New York. She was exhausted and dehydrated, but her first question was whether Naomi was safe.

“She stopped Vanessa,” Alexander said. “Just like you hoped she would.”

Evelyn managed a small smile. “I hoped she’d keep her head down. That girl never did.”

Naomi sat beside her. “Did you know who I was?”

“Not at first. Then I saw the scar and heard your laugh. Rosa once sent me a picture without a name. She wanted someone else to know you were alive.”

Evelyn gave a recorded statement. She had worked in the home’s laundry. On the night of the fire, she and Rosa tried to evacuate children from a corridor whose emergency exit had been chained. Evelyn saw Arthur Pike carrying a metal cash box into the administrative wing. Malcolm Sterling was there, arguing with Alexander’s father.

“Did you see who started the fire?” Maya asked.

“No,” Evelyn said. “And I won't pretend otherwise. I smelled smoke before I saw anyone with a match.”

The distinction mattered. So did everything she could prove.

Evelyn identified the staff who altered intake records and explained how the children had been assigned false medical histories. She described Rosa carrying Lucy out, then hiding her beneath a blanket in the back seat of a coworker’s car.

Naomi squeezed Evelyn’s hand. “Why come to the party after all these years?”

“Because Sterling's charity announced a new children's shelter. I saw the same names on its board. I was afraid they were starting over.”

Maya asked for the shelter’s address. Evelyn recited it from memory.

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Evelyn asked whether the children who survived the home had ever been allowed to choose their new names. Nobody in the room could answer. She closed her eyes for a moment, then insisted the recording continue. She had waited too long to be interrupted now.

Within an hour investigators discovered the building had already received public funding—and its first group of children was scheduled to arrive Monday morning.