Page 58 of Secrets of the Past
Evelyn’s jaw feathered.“I may have suggested she wasn’t compatible with him long-term.”
A hum, low as a hive, moved through the jurors.Tripp’s eyes sharpened.
“And the pregnancy?”he asked.“Did you advise your son how to handle it?”
“I told him options existed,” Evelyn said, pearls winking beneath the lights.“That he didn’t have to let one mistake dictate his entire life.”
That meeting with Mrs.Masterson hadn’t been about polite concern, it had been a warning.Don’t get pregnant.Don’t you dare try to trap my son.The accusation had seared through Nicole like acid, her fury rising at the audacity of it.She and Tripp had made their own vow, a sacred promise not to have children until school was behind them.
And yet his mother, in all her arrogance, had assumed Nicole was nothing more than a schemer lying in wait to snare him just like Evelyn Reddick had assumed about Bianca.
“Options,” Tripp repeated.“Including abortion.”
“Yes.”The word snapped like a twig.“Bianca had her own plans.Law school.A career.She wasn’t prepared to support Derrick’s path.She would have ruined him.”
The air thinned.Nicole’s chest tightened.History repeating itself.
Tripp’s voice lost its velvet.“So to be clear, you told your son that Bianca was unsuitable.That her pregnancy was a mistake.That the child she carried was not worth altering his plans for.”
Evelyn’s composure flickered, then settled.“I told him his future was too important to be tied down by a girl who didn’t belong in our family.”
Nicole swallowed hard.It was always the same song: our family, our kind, our future.A hymn to exclusion, sung in perfect pitch.
Tripp took a breath, changed lanes.“Where were you on the night Ms.Laurent was killed?”
Evelyn smiled.It didn’t reach her eyes.“At home.Reading.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.Derrick was out with friends, not that he still lives at home.But I had no plans.”
Tripp nodded, turning a page in his binder.“Phone records show a call from your number to Ms.Laurent at 9:35 p.m.that night.What was discussed?”
“I urged her to terminate the pregnancy,” Evelyn said, voice cool.“To let Derrick finish his studies.He’s going to be a doctor.”A quick, maternal glance toward her son, softening like sunlight, well-practiced and deadly.
Nicole had seen that look on Mrs.Masterson’s face before.
“And what did Bianca say?”
“She refused.Her family is Catholic.She was not terminating the pregnancy.”
“Did you threaten her?”
Evelyn’s smile sharpened.“I don’t threaten.I reason.”
A murmur spread from the back row.Nicole kept her face still.She understood what Tripp was doing.
Why had she been so blind?Because this wasn’t new, she knew this kind of truth, had lived it, and it had carved scars deep into her.It was the kind of truth that stole your breath, that left you staring at the ceiling at three a.m., wondering how love could be twisted into something so cruel.And now, standing here, she felt it all over again—raw, merciless, and burning through her like fire.
Tripp walked a few steps, the rhythm of his soles on hardwood a metronome.“Mrs.Reddick, had you ever been to Ms.Laurent’s home?”
“No.”
“But you had her address.”
“I’m sure it was in a file.Somewhere.”
“Because you invited her to Derrick’s graduation party?”
