“Are you rich?” Lily asked quietly, touching the leather seat.
“I have money,” Evelyn replied. “But today I realized I’ve been poor for a very long time.”
They stopped in front of a decaying apartment building.
“Third floor. No elevator,” Lily said.
Evelyn climbed the dark stairs, each step heavy with thirteen years of regret. She remembered the last time she saw Claire—standing in her office, scared, trying to talk.
“Later, Claire. I don’t have time.”
That “later” had lasted over a decade.
Lily pushed open the door.
“Mom? I brought help.”
Inside, on a sagging couch under thin blankets, lay a woman.
She coughed weakly and turned her head.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
It was Claire.
Older. Pale. Fragile.
But alive.
“Mom?” Claire whispered.
Evelyn collapsed beside her, holding her like she might disappear.
“I’m here,” Evelyn sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
Claire cried silently, clutching her mother like a lifeline.
Later, through tears, Claire told the truth.
She had fallen in love with the wrong man—a criminal who used her to get close to the company. When she refused to give him access, he threatened Evelyn and Michael.
“He said if I contacted you, he’d kill you,” Claire said. “So I disappeared… to protect you.”