Chapter 7 - Thomas Tries to Explain
Thomas asked to speak with Evelyn alone.
She refused.
General Hayes remained near the door.
Thomas entered the backstage room looking smaller than she remembered.
For most of Evelyn’s childhood, he had been decisive.
He built companies.
Controlled meetings.
Fixed problems.
Now he struggled to sit.
“I never wanted you hurt.”
Evelyn looked at the swelling on her arm.
“That is always what people say after choosing the person who hurt them.”
“I did not know Linda would use the chair.”
“You knew everything before the chair.”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
He admitted taking the evidence case.
Derek called him after the attack.
He said a disgruntled engineer had stolen company files and endangered national security.
Thomas believed the documents were misleading.
He collected the case to “review it.”
Then he saw the emails.
He knew Derek had approved the substitutions.
“Why didn’t you turn it in?”
“Because the company would have collapsed.”
“It should have.”
“Thousands of people would have lost their jobs.”
“People almost died because the equipment failed.”
“You survived.”
Hayes’s expression changed.
Thomas immediately regretted the words.
Evelyn did not raise her voice.
“Marcus Vale didn’t.”
Thomas swallowed.
He said Linda convinced him that Derek made one administrative mistake.
She argued Evelyn’s report could be delayed until the company stabilized.
Then officials began asking questions.
Thomas signed a statement claiming Evelyn had a history of exaggerating family conflicts.
He provided records from a therapist Evelyn saw after her mother’s death.
He allowed investigators to frame grief as instability.
“I thought they would close the contractor inquiry quietly.”
“They tried to destroy my career.”
“I did not know it would go that far.”
“You never asked.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I was afraid of losing everything Susan and I built.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You lost what she built the moment you used her daughter to save it.”
Thomas began crying.
Evelyn felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
He had loved her.
She believed that.
But when forced to choose between truth and legacy, he sacrificed her.
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Love had not made him brave.
It had only made his betrayal more intimate.
