“He was leaving me,” she said.
Claire covered her mouth.
Rowan stared. “What?”
“Not for another woman. Not like gossip would have preferred.” Evelyn’s smile was brittle. “For principle. For conscience. He had written letters. To you. To the board. To attorneys. He planned to expose Hawthorne and remove me from every trust.”
“The letter Megan saw.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
Evelyn’s eyes snapped back to him. “I did not kill your father.”
Rowan said nothing.
“I argued with him. Bitterly. He was already unwell. The doctors had warned him about stress, but Henry always believed his heart was stronger than it was.” Her voice faltered for the first time. “He collapsed in his study. I called for help.”
Rowan watched her carefully. “Immediately?”
Silence.
The answer was in it.
Claire whispered, “Evelyn.”
“I was frightened,” Evelyn said sharply, but the sharpness could not hide the crack beneath. “He was going to destroy everything.”
