Chapter 3 - Evelyn’s Purse
Evelyn refused.
“No.”
Marcus stood several feet away.
Nobody touched her.
Alessia did not need force.
“You can leave,” she said. “But the police are already being called regarding Mom’s assault. You can explain the missing envelope to them outside.”
Evelyn looked at Garrett.
That was her second mistake.
Garrett stared back.
A silent conversation passed between mother and son.
Alessia had seen that look before.
At dinners.
Board events.
Family holidays.
Times when Garrett and Evelyn seemed to reach decisions without speaking.
She had once thought it was closeness.
Now it looked like coordination.
Miriam pressed an ice pack against her side.
“Alessia.”
Her daughter turned.
“Your father made me promise I wouldn’t open it unless something happened.”
“Something happened to Dad.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you give it to me?”
Miriam’s eyes filled.
“Because the instructions said eighteen months.”
Alessia stared.
Her father had died fourteen months earlier after complications following heart surgery.
“What happens at eighteen months?”
“I don’t know.”
Garrett suddenly said, “This is insane.”
Miriam pointed at him.
“He knew about it.”
Alessia’s head snapped around.
“How?”
“I didn’t.”
“You asked her what Dad changed.”
Garrett took a breath.
“I knew Carlo updated some estate documents. Everyone knew.”
Alessia laughed once.
“No. Everyone did not know.”
Evelyn moved toward the door.
Marcus stepped aside exactly as Alessia had instructed.
“You’re free to go.”
Evelyn stopped.
Police sirens were now audible beyond the gates.
She looked toward the windows.
Then slowly opened her purse.
Lipstick.
Wallet.
Phone.
Handkerchief.
A small medication bottle.
No envelope.
Garrett smiled.
“There. Happy?”
Alessia was watching Evelyn, not the purse.
One of the pearl bracelets on Evelyn’s wrist had caught on something beneath the lining.
A small torn piece of cream paper.
Alessia pointed.
“What’s that?”
Evelyn looked down.
Too late.
Marcus photographed it.
The purse contained a hidden zippered compartment sewn into the interior wall.
Inside was the envelope.
Evelyn’s face collapsed.
Not completely.
But enough.
Police arrived moments later.
Garrett was separated from the others.
Paramedics checked Miriam.
An officer sealed the envelope as potential evidence connected to the assault.
Alessia watched it disappear into an evidence bag.
She felt strangely hollow.
An hour ago, she had been hosting a charity dinner.
Now her husband was being questioned for assaulting her mother.
Her mother-in-law had hidden a document Garrett apparently wanted badly enough to attack someone for.
And her dead father had created instructions no one had told Alessia about.
Then Detective Jordan Reese asked Evelyn a simple question.
“Why did you hide the envelope?”
Evelyn stared through the glass doors toward Alessia.
“Because Carlo Moretti destroyed my family once.”
Alessia went cold.
May you like
Evelyn continued.
“And I wasn’t going to let his daughter finish the job.”
