Vanessa lowered her voice. “There’s a storage unit. Claudia’s name is on it, but Evan uses it. I saw boxes there. Files. Baby things. And documents with your name.”
My stomach tightened.
“What documents?”
“I don’t know. I only saw the labels.”
“What labels?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she said, “Medical authorization. Psychological evaluation. Lily signature copies.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
Nora whispered, “Signature copies?”
Vanessa nodded once. “I thought it was for normal paperwork. But after what happened in there…” She looked at Noah, then away quickly. “I don’t think it is.”
I remembered the papers Marcus placed beside my IV. The blank spaces where my signature waited. Evan’s voice saying, You’re making this uglier than it has to be.
Had there been other papers?
Had my signature already been copied?
A coldness moved through me that had nothing to do with the courthouse air-conditioning.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
Vanessa’s answer came too quickly.
“Because I don’t want to be part of something illegal.”
But her eyes said there was more.
Before I could press her, the elevator doors opened down the hall. Evan stepped out alone.
Vanessa’s face changed instantly.
Fear.
There it was. Brief, unmistakable, and gone almost as soon as it appeared.
Evan saw us together.
His smile arrived before he did.
It was the smile he used at charity dinners and business luncheons. Warm. Controlled. Meaningless.
“Vanessa,” he called. “We’re leaving.”
She closed her fist around the bracelet.
“I have to go,” she whispered.
“Where is the storage unit?” I asked.
She looked at me, then at Evan approaching.
“Ask your husband about Briar Lake,” she said under her breath.
Then she walked away.
Evan stopped beside her and placed his hand at the small of her back. The gesture looked affectionate to anyone passing by.
I saw how her shoulders stiffened.
His eyes met mine over her head.
“Enjoy your little victory, Lily,” he said softly.
Nora reached into her purse. “I’m calling security.”
Evan smiled wider. “I didn’t speak to her. I spoke near her.”
“Court order includes indirect intimidation,” Nora snapped.
His gaze dropped to Noah.
For the first time, there was no softness in it. No wonder. No fatherly warmth.
Only possession denied.
Then Marcus appeared behind him, grabbed Evan’s arm, and muttered, “Enough.”
Evan let himself be led away.
But as he walked toward the exit, he looked back once.
Not at me.
At the red folder clutched under Nora’s arm.
That was when I understood something important.
He wasn’t only afraid of what I had revealed.
He was afraid of what I might find next.
By the time we reached Nora’s car, rain had begun to fall in a fine silver mist. The sky hung low over the courthouse, turning the windows into dark mirrors. Nora helped me into the passenger seat and tucked a blanket around Noah with the tenderness of someone handling a candle flame.
