Chapter 3 - The Girl Evelyn Left Behind
Clara Cross had been Evelyn's best friend.
At seventeen, both girls were sent to Northwood Ridge, a private behavioral wilderness program in Vermont.
Evelyn was there after months of rebellion following her father's death.
Clara had severe anxiety and repeatedly ran away from home.
The ankle restraints in the photograph were part of a controversial transportation procedure used during supervised wilderness exercises.
Years later, the program was shut down.
Hadrian felt sick looking at the cuff.
This object had history.
But none of that explained why it had been placed on Sorrel.
Margaret came to the house.
Hadrian refused to let her begin with excuses.
“Tell me what happened.”
In August 2002, Evelyn and Clara tried to escape Northwood Ridge.
They reached a road.
A staff member found them.
Evelyn ran.
Clara didn't.
Evelyn reached a gas station and called Margaret.
Police became involved.
The program faced investigation.
Evelyn went home.
Clara remained another six months because her parents refused to remove her.
Clara never forgave Evelyn.
“She thought Evelyn abandoned her,” Margaret said.
“Did she?”
“No.”
Evelyn had begged police to retrieve Clara.
But Clara's parents legally insisted she stay.
Years later, Evelyn tried contacting her.
Clara refused.
Then something unexpected happened.
Aurelia entered Hadrian's life.
They met at a museum fundraiser two years after Evelyn died.
Aurelia claimed she didn't know Evelyn.
She had lied from the beginning.
She knew exactly who Hadrian was.
Exactly who Sorrel was.
“Why?”
Margaret looked ashamed.
“I don't know.”
“You were on that recording.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Aurelia approached her six months earlier.
She revealed she was Clara's younger sister.
She wanted Evelyn's old Northwood belongings.
Margaret agreed to help because she believed returning them might bring closure.
That was how Aurelia got the shackles.
Hadrian's voice hardened.
“You gave them to her?”
“One.”
Hadrian froze.
“What?”
Margaret had only found one cuff.
The one engraved Evelyn Vale.
Aurelia already possessed the second.
Engraved:
CLARA CROSS.
Hadrian immediately understood Sorrel's words.
Mommy had two.
Evelyn had once kept both cuffs after Northwood shut down.
Somehow Clara's cuff had later reached Aurelia.
But the cuff on Sorrel was Evelyn's.
Why choose that one?
Then Sorrel's smartwatch produced another clue.
A second recording.
Aurelia speaking to someone on the phone.
“I did exactly what you wanted. Now give me Clara's letter.”
A man's voice answered.
“When Hadrian sees Evelyn's name, he'll start digging.”
“That's the point.”
Hadrian replayed it.
Aurelia hadn't been trying to hide the cuff forever.
She wanted him to find it.
The cruelty toward Sorrel was real.
Unforgivable.
But the shackle itself had been planted as bait.
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Someone wanted Hadrian investigating Evelyn.
The question was why.
