Chapter 2 — The Woman Stellan Called Aunt Evelyn
Stellan stared at the document.
“This says Evelyn was my mother.”
Rowena opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Adeline stood beside Stellan.
Her anger had not faded.
But she kept one hand gently against Merrick’s back.
“Tell him.”
Rowena looked toward her.
“You had no right to take that.”
Stellan’s head snapped up.
“Don’t talk to her.”
Rowena froze.
Stellan held up the document.
“Talk to me.”
“Is this real?”
Rowena looked toward Merrick.
Then away.
“Yes.”
The word landed like a blow.
Stellan sat back against the stone bench.
“Evelyn was my biological mother?”
Rowena nodded.
He stared at her.
“The woman I called Aunt Evelyn?”
Another nod.
Stellan looked down at the baby in his arms.
Merrick had stopped screaming.
He was whimpering quietly now.
Adeline crouched beside them.
“We need to have him checked.”
Stellan nodded immediately.
“Yes.”
Then looked toward Rowena.
“You stay away from him.”
Rowena looked wounded.
“Stellan—”
“Don’t.”
His voice was quiet.
That made it worse.
“Don’t come closer to my son.”
Rowena stopped.
Adeline called the family doctor while Stellan continued reading.
The order had been signed when Stellan was fourteen months old.
Adoptive parents:
Rowena Vale
and her late husband,
Edmund Vale.
Biological mother:
Evelyn Vale.
Stellan’s mind raced.
Evelyn.
His mother’s younger sister.
The quiet aunt who had visited irregularly throughout his childhood.
The woman who always brought books instead of toys.
The woman who cried at his seventh birthday for no reason anyone explained.
The woman who once hugged him for so long that Rowena finally said:
“Evelyn, that’s enough.”
Stellan remembered it clearly now.
He had laughed.
Evelyn had stepped away wiping her eyes.
He had thought adults were simply strange.
Now that memory felt completely different.
“She knew?” he asked.
Rowena looked down.
“Of course she knew.”
Stellan stared.
“And she let me call her Aunt Evelyn?”
Rowena’s face tightened.
“That was the agreement.”
“Whose agreement?”
“The family’s.”
Stellan gave a disbelieving laugh.
“I was the family too.”
Rowena said nothing.
Adeline finished the phone call.
“The doctor is coming.”
Stellan nodded.
Then looked at his wife.
“How did you find this?”
Adeline hesitated.
“Three days ago.”
Rowena immediately looked toward her.
Stellan’s expression changed again.
“You’ve known for three days?”
Adeline’s face fell.
“I knew there was a document.”
“I didn’t know the whole story.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Adeline looked toward Rowena.
“Because she caught me with it before I could.”
Stellan followed her gaze.
Adeline continued.
“And she told me that if I showed it to you, I would destroy your family.”
Stellan looked toward Rowena.
“Is that why you had Merrick upstairs?”
Rowena’s silence answered too much.
But Adeline knew Stellan still did not understand how the document had ended up in her silver purse.
And when she explained where she found it, another part of Rowena’s lie began to unravel.