His Wife Was Declared Dead—Then She Walked Into His Engagement Gala With a Baby, and the Medal She Dropped Exposed Why Their Marriage Had Been Erased

Chapter 05 - Evelyn’s Version of the Truth

Evelyn asked to speak with Adrian privately.

Mara refused to let them meet without recording the conversation. Evelyn agreed, arriving without her father or attorneys. The polished confidence she wore at the gala had disappeared.

She admitted driving the car at the ferry terminal.

Conrad had told her Hannah was blackmailing the Cross family and needed to be taken to a clinic for evaluation. Evelyn was twenty-four, financially dependent on her father, and desperate to secure the alliance between their families.

“I believed what made my life easier,” she said.

At St. Agnes, Evelyn realized Hannah was being held against her will. By then, Conrad had evidence that Evelyn helped abduct her. He threatened to send her to prison and destroy her mother’s medical charity if she spoke.

Evelyn continued the engagement.

She intercepted invitations, repeated Conrad’s lies, and visited Hannah once during the pregnancy. She brought custody papers promising Hannah a new identity and money in exchange for Ella.

“I told myself I was offering her a way out,” Evelyn said. “I was really asking her to disappear for me.”

Adrian removed the engagement ring from his pocket and placed it on the table.

“You knew my wife was alive.”

“Yes.”

“You knew I had a child.”

“Not until I saw Hannah pregnant.”

“And you still stood beside me at the gala.”

Evelyn began to cry, but Adrian did not comfort her.

She offered one piece of information in exchange for protection. Simon had kept a duplicate financial ledger in the Hart family conservatory, hidden behind a portrait of Evelyn’s late mother. Conrad planned to destroy it before the hearing.

Police searched the conservatory and found the wall safe empty.

On the floor lay Simon’s bloodstained glasses.

There was no body.

Security footage showed Conrad entering the building at 2:10 a.m. and leaving with a metal case. Another camera captured Simon running through the rear garden twenty minutes later.

Simon was alive and frightened.

He contacted Mara from a prepaid phone. He promised to surrender the ledger if she protected him from Conrad.

The exchange would take place at the old military chapel where Adrian and Hannah had married.

Hannah insisted on going. Simon had deleted her marriage record and might know where Lucia was.

Adrian objected, then stopped himself.

“It is your decision,” he said.

Hannah nodded. “Then I decide not to let men trade my life in rooms where I am absent.”