Chapter 4 - The Sister Nobody Mentioned
Abigail Hawthorne died eleven years before I met Evan.
That was what he finally told me.
“She was twenty-nine.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
“Car accident.”
“Why have I never seen a photo?”
“Mom removed them.”
“Why?”
“Because Abigail destroyed the family.”
That sounded like Lenora’s language.
“What does that mean?”
Evan sat down.
“My father had another child before he married Mom.”
I frowned.
“Abigail?”
“No. My half-brother.”
My head was spinning.
“Start over.”
Evan closed his eyes.
His father, Richard Hawthorne, had an adult son from a previous relationship.
That son later had a daughter.
Abigail.
Technically Evan’s niece.
But because the age difference was small, they grew up more like siblings.
Lenora hated Abigail.
Not because she had done anything wrong.
Because Abigail represented Richard’s first family.
I understood immediately.
Bloodline obsession.
The same venom Lenora now directed at Maisie.
“Why did she erase Abigail?”
“Because of the will.”
Of course.
Richard had left Abigail a large inheritance.
Lenora fought it.
Lost.
Then Abigail died.
The money went somewhere else.
“Where?”
Evan looked at me.
“A trust.”
“For who?”
“I never knew.”
We opened the folder marked ABIGAIL.
Inside were scanned documents.
A trust agreement.
Old letters.
One photograph.
Abigail was beautiful.
Brown hair.
Bright smile.
And she was standing beside Lenora.
Lenora looked furious even in the photo.
Then Claire opened another file.
A handwritten letter.
Evan read aloud:
If anything happens to me, I want my remaining trust assets distributed to the first biological daughter born into Richard Hawthorne’s direct family line.
Silence.
I stared at Evan.
“Maisie.”
His face went white.
If the clause was valid and still active, Maisie could be the beneficiary.
Suddenly Lenora’s hatred had a financial shape.
But it still didn’t explain the fertility test.
Then we found the next file.
A legal memo.
It explained that before trust assets could transfer, biological lineage had to be confirmed.
Lenora’s secret paternity test hadn’t been about accusing me of cheating.
It had been about proving whether Maisie qualified for Abigail’s trust.
The result had confirmed she did.
I looked at Evan.
“How much money?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Claire found the asset statement.
My stomach dropped.
$4.8 million.
Evan stood.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“My mother wasn’t afraid Maisie wasn’t a Hawthorne.”
May you like
His voice turned cold.
“She was afraid she was.”
