“Yes,” she whispered. “There was another baby.”
“Why is he in the woods?” Andrew asked.
Evelyn looked up, and there was terror in her eyes now, old and rotten and impossible to hide.
“Because when he was born, I panicked.”
Samuel’s voice turned hard. “Panicked over what?”
She swallowed. “He looked different.”
Andrew stared at her like he had never seen her before.
“You tried to get rid of our brother?”
Evelyn broke then, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.
That night, Samuel marched straight into his father’s study.
Mr. Harper was reading by lamplight when the door slammed open.
“You have another son,” Samuel said. “Mother lied. He’s alive.”
Mr. Harper rose slowly from behind the desk.
“What did you say?”
“The baby she claimed died. He’s been living in the woods all these years.”
