Chapter 8: The House of Lies
Evelyn moved into a modest apartment across the city.
She hated everything about it.
The narrow hallways.
The ordinary furniture.
The absence of staff.
Most of all, she hated the silence.
Her society friends stopped calling.
Charities removed her name from committees.
Invitations vanished.
The same people who once laughed at Helena’s handbag now pretended they had never witnessed the birthday dinner.
One afternoon, Evelyn received a visitor.
Celeste.
“You have nerve coming here,” Evelyn said.
Celeste remained near the door.
“I came to warn you.”
“About what?”
“Adrian thinks you kept money from him.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
Celeste had discovered another secret during her cooperation with investigators.
Years earlier, Evelyn had sold several family assets and placed the proceeds in a private account.
She told Adrian the properties had been lost through debt.
Instead, she had preserved money for herself.
“He’ll find out,” Celeste said.
“He has no right to judge me.”
“He’s looking for someone to blame.”
Evelyn turned away.
“I did everything for that boy.”
“No,” Celeste replied. “You taught him that consequences belonged to other people.”
After Celeste left, Adrian arrived.
He looked through the apartment with open disgust.
“This is where you live now?”
Evelyn folded her arms.
“What do you want?”
“The account.”
She said nothing.
“How much is in it?”
“It belongs to me.”
“You let me lose everything while you kept millions?”
“I protected the family.”
“I am the family.”
Evelyn stared at him.
For the first time, she saw the man she had created.
Entitled.
Cruel.
Desperate.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You’ll transfer it to me.”
“No.”
The word shocked them both.
Evelyn had defended him through every scandal.
But now she understood that Adrian would consume her too.
“You struck your wife,” she said.
“You helped me accuse her.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
“And that will be my shame for the rest of my life.”
She opened the door.
“Leave.”
Adrian did not move.
Evelyn looked directly into his eyes.
May you like
“You no longer frighten me.”
For the first time, Adrian Vale was expelled from a home he believed he controlled.
