Chapter 10 - THOMAS'S BETRAYAL
Thomas wanted to hate only Evelyn.
Toby complicated that.
One afternoon he asked:
“Grandpa, why you marry Evie?”
Thomas had no answer suitable for a three-year-old.
Because after Natalie died, Evelyn had been there.
She brought food.
Helped with memorial logistics.
Read to Toby.
Sat with Thomas through nights he could not sleep.
She said she understood grief because she had lost her own mother young.
Thomas believed comfort meant character.
He began dating her five months after Natalie’s death.
His sister Margaret warned him.
“Too fast.”
Thomas said:
“Life is short.”
Natalie’s friend Helen warned him too.
“Evelyn and Natalie were not getting along before she died.”
Thomas dismissed it.
“Work disagreements.”
Then Helen showed him an old email she had sent Thomas seven months earlier.
Subject:
PLEASE CALL ME ABOUT EVELYN.
Thomas had never opened it.
Why?
Evelyn had access to his wedding-planning inbox and had created filters for vendors, family, and foundation contacts.
Helen’s email had been moved into:
FOUNDATION — LATER.
Thomas stared.
Evelyn had not only hidden Natalie’s concerns.
She had controlled which concerns reached him afterward.
But Thomas still had to face his part.
He had been warned by people.
He chose the easier story.
Evelyn loved me.
Natalie was gone.
The conflict was over.
Then Toby said something else.
“Mommy no like Evie.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Why?”
Toby shrugged.
“Mommy say no touch bag.”
A child-sized memory.
Maybe borrowed.
Maybe real.
Then Thomas remembered the gala morning.
Natalie had called him from the hotel.
“Dad, if Evelyn asks where I put anything tonight, don’t tell her.”
Thomas had laughed.
“Are you two twelve?”
Natalie said:
“I’m serious.”
Thomas had forgotten.
Now he could hear the irritation in her voice.
May you like
And beneath it—
fear.
