Part 3: 

“I need to know what’s true,” Kayla whispered. “I found this in my father’s office. He said it was a real estate proposal, but there were old photographs inside. And a letter with Evelyn Collins’s name on it.”

Inside the house, Kayla placed her folder beside the blue lockbox.

The papers revealed a woman named Marisol Reyes. In 1998, she had written to Evelyn, saying Daniel Collins—Scott’s father—knew her baby was his. Kayla’s father, Thomas Jensen, had helped arrange documents pressuring Marisol to accept money and disappear.

The baby’s name was Lena Marisol Reyes.

Scott had a half sister.

The flash drive contained a video Evelyn had recorded in the same study. She admitted that her son Daniel had fathered Marisol’s child and tried to silence her. Evelyn said she had failed at first, but later tried to preserve the truth.

Then she looked into the camera and said that if Scott ever tried to claim the estate while discarding me, his actions should be examined carefully.

“Avery has shown a steadiness this family has too often mistaken for something it could use,” Evelyn said. “She is not to be used.”

Those words broke something open inside me.

For once, I was not someone’s wife, obstacle, signature, or convenience.

I was a person worth protecting.

Scott finally apologized, but I did not rush to forgive him. I told him I believed he was sorry in that moment, but I was no longer the person who could make that enough.

As we secured the documents and prepared to leave, Margaret’s phone rang.

Her office had found preliminary information on Lena Reyes.

Margaret’s face went pale.

“Lena died five years ago,” she said. “But she had a daughter.”

Rain tapped softly against the trees.

Margaret looked at me.

“Her daughter’s name is Avery.”