“My name really is Evelyn Shaw.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
She picked up the baton Grace had dropped.
“I worked personal security before I disappeared. Sofia hired me before Grace was born. Not because she was afraid of your enemies.”
Evelyn looked directly at me.
“She was afraid of yours becoming hers.”
Grace inhaled sharply.
I stepped closer.
“Name him.”
“I can’t. Not yet.”
“You can.”
“If I give you a name without proof, you’ll react like a husband instead of thinking like a father.”
“I am both.”
“That’s the problem.”
No one spoke to me that way.
No one except Sofia ever had.
I hated Evelyn for reminding me of her.
“What changed four months ago?”
Evelyn reached into her pocket and placed a cheap black phone on the table.
“A message was sent through an emergency account Sofia created.”
She tapped the screen.
A photograph appeared.