Chapter 4 - Clara’s Letter
Police identified the man's voice.
Gideon Shaw.
Fifty-eight.
Former counselor at Northwood Ridge.
Hadrian found his name in Evelyn's papers.
Gideon had later become a private family therapist.
And, astonishingly, had treated Evelyn again as an adult.
Hadrian had never known.
Gideon agreed to speak.
He denied telling Aurelia to restrain Sorrel.
“I told her to put the cuff where you'd find it.”
“On my daughter?”
“No.”
Gideon's expression hardened.
“That was Aurelia.”
Hadrian believed him only after messages supported the distinction.
Gideon wanted the cuff placed in Evelyn's old dressing room.
Aurelia chose something crueler.
Why?
Anger.
Resentment.
Control.
Aurelia had spent months becoming increasingly hostile toward Sorrel.
Hadrian had missed it because most of his business travel happened during those months.
That realization hurt more than he wanted to admit.
Gideon handed him an envelope.
Clara's letter.
Written nineteen years earlier.
Never delivered.
Hadrian,
You don't know me, but someday you may need to know what Evelyn survived before she became the woman you love.
Hadrian stopped.
Clara knew him?
The letter was dated two months before Hadrian married Evelyn.
Clara wrote that she had reconnected with Evelyn briefly.
They reconciled.
So Aurelia's story of lifelong hatred was false.
Clara had forgiven Evelyn.
Then why had Aurelia built everything around supposed revenge for her sister?
Hadrian kept reading.
Clara claimed Northwood Ridge had maintained secret files on wealthy families.
Medical information.
Addiction histories.
Affairs.
Financial problems.
Anything parents disclosed during intake.
Years after the program closed, someone began using those files for blackmail.
Evelyn discovered it.
So did Clara.
Together they collected evidence.
Then Clara vanished.
Hadrian looked at Gideon.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“When did you last see her?”
“2015.”
Clara disappeared eight years before Evelyn died.
Police reports showed she voluntarily emptied her apartment.
No evidence of violence.
No body.
No confirmed death.
Aurelia had always described her sister as dead.
Another lie.
Then Gideon told Hadrian the part Evelyn had hidden.
Clara left behind a daughter.
Three years old.
The father was unknown.
The child was raised by relatives.
Hadrian asked:
“Where is she now?”
Gideon hesitated.
“That's why Aurelia wanted the letter.”
“Where?”
“Hadrian…”
“Tell me.”
May you like
Gideon looked him directly in the eyes.
“Your house.”
