Chapter 16 - Evelyn Whitcomb
The lights came back on.
The doors unlocked.
Gabriel had left one address on the central screen.
A farmhouse in northern Maine.
Caleb wanted to leave immediately.
June refused to let him go alone.
Victor came too.
The farmhouse sat miles from the nearest town.
Caleb approached the porch.
An elderly woman opened the door before he knocked.
She was seventy.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
But Caleb recognized her eyes.
His own eyes.
“Caleb.”
He could not speak.
Evelyn Whitcomb began crying.
He stood frozen.
Twenty-nine years of grief rose at once.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
Her face collapsed.
“Yes.”
Caleb stepped backward.
June stayed near the car.
Victor lowered his head.
Evelyn looked at him.
“You found him.”
Victor nodded.
Caleb’s anger erupted.
“You could have found me.”
“I tried.”
“No.”
“You have no idea—”
“I was fourteen!”
Evelyn flinched.
“You left me with him.”
“With Warren.”
“My father.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“I don’t know if he was.”
Caleb laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“Caleb—”
“Was I your son?”
“Yes.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“You were mine.”
“But the blood types.”
“Those records were altered.”
“By who?”
“Margaret.”
Caleb stared.
“Why?”
“To make me doubt everything.”
Evelyn invited them inside.
On a kitchen table she placed a sealed envelope.
Inside was a DNA test dated 1997.
Evelyn Whitcomb: biological mother.
Caleb Whitcomb: biological son.
Probability greater than 99.9%.
Caleb sank into a chair.
“Why didn’t you come back after this?”
Evelyn sat across from him.
“Because Margaret had Gabriel.”
June frowned.
“Gabriel was already an adult.”
“Not emotionally.”
Evelyn looked toward the window.
“She spent his entire childhood telling him I abandoned him because I loved the Whitcombs more.”
Caleb whispered, “Did you?”
“I was seventeen.”
Tears appeared.
“My parents took him from me the day he was born.”
Caleb’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“And later?”
“I found him after your father died.”
“Three years ago?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He wanted revenge.”
“Against me?”
“Against the family.”
Caleb leaned forward.
“He has my daughter.”
Evelyn went pale.
“No.”
“You know where?”
“No.”
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised him.
“You shouldn’t trust me yet.”
She opened a drawer.
Inside was another USB.
“I’ve spent three years collecting evidence against Margaret.”
June looked at it.
“What evidence?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“The truth about Adrian.”
