“I want a deal.”
Mack turned on him.
“You coward.”
He stepped away.
The other guard followed.
Within minutes, the entire plan began falling apart.
Mack was arrested.
The prison officials connected to the financial scheme were investigated.
And the evidence from my father’s files eventually led to a much larger case.
But there was one thing I still didn’t understand.
Why had Evelyn been imprisoned?
Weeks later, after the investigation began, I finally learned the truth.
She hadn’t killed my father.
She had taken responsibility for a crime she didn’t commit because someone had threatened her family.
She had spent years protecting the evidence.
Waiting.
Hoping that one day my father would be proven right.
And when she realized I had been sent to Westbridge, she knew the people responsible had finally found me.
That was why she had protected the box.
That was why she had risked everything.
And that was why she had recognized me the moment she saw my face.
She had known me since I was a little girl.
She had once been my father’s closest friend.
On the morning Evelyn was released, I stood outside the prison gate waiting for her.
She walked toward me carrying the same little canvas bag.
