Chapter Twenty-Three Addendum
After Tommy said goodbye and headed back to the Tower, Evie spent the afternoon cleaning and packing, sorting boxes into three piles depending on where they were going.
She was gathering the small statuettes of saints her mother had scattered around the apartment when Della shuffled out of her room, cradling a small, ornate wooden box.
“Evie, honey, can we talk?”
Evie froze. That phrase always came before bad news. A familiar flutter of panic rose in her stomach.
“Sure, Mom. What’s up?” she asked, forcing a cheerful smile. She’d gotten good at it, good enough that neither Tommy nor Thorn could tell when it was fake.
Della crossed to the couch and set the box on the coffee table. She patted the seat beside her; her smile tinged with sadness.
Suppressing a groan, Evie joined her. Della took her hand in both of hers, and Evie tried not to flinch at how fragile she felt.
Her skin was paper-thin, and the bones felt delicate beneath her fingers.
Her mother’s health had declined sharply in the past three months; her skin carried a permanent yellow cast, and she spent most days asleep, too tired to finish a meal.
“So,” Evie asked lightly, “what did you want to talk about?”
“You know your father and I loved you very much, despite everything, right?” Della’s voice trembled, carrying a childlike need for reassurance.
Evie’s smile tightened before she squeezed her mother’s hand.
“You guys were the best parents a girl could ask for,” she said, a half-truth wrapped in sincerity.
They had given her everything: ballet instead of the hip-hop classes she wanted, shelves of educational toys, and dresses Della approved of.
Oscar’s overbearing, temperamental personality had made her cautious, always trying to keep the peace. Della, for all her gentleness, had used guilt as her weapon of choice. Neither parent was openly affectionate; praise came easily, but disappointment was never hidden.
Tears welled in Della’s eyes. She pressed Evie’s hand to her cheek, voice barely above a whisper. “I’m glad you think so. We did our best. Which makes this next part so hard.”
She drew a steadying breath, and Evie braced for whatever storm was coming.
“We’re not your biological parents,” Della said softly. “We adopted you as a newborn.”
Evie didn’t move. Not because what Della said shocked her - she’d suspected it for years.
Oscar had been a brown-eyed redhead before he went bald, and Della was a green-eyed blonde.
Evie’s nearly black hair and deep blue eyes matched neither.
She just wasn’t sure how to respond without admitting she already knew.
“Oh,” she said softly. She didn’t know what else to say. She never expected Della to admit it and had decided to look into it after Della passed away.
“Your father and I couldn't have a baby,” Della explained, even though Evie hadn’t asked.
“We tried for many years, and while I had no problem getting pregnant, staying pregnant was another thing altogether. The doctors never found a reason for it, but now I know it was God preventing Oscar’s evilness from being passed on. ”
"Mom." Evie sighed. If she didn't stop her now, she would go on a tangent about Oscar being evil incarnate for a good hour, which always led Evie to question all her life decisions that got her to that point. "Don't. Please. You just told me I was adopted. Can we stick to that?"
"I'm just saying there was a reason I couldn't carry a baby to term, and I know God was intervening on my behalf." Della insisted stubbornly, her cheeks flushing.
"That's great, Mom." Evie got up and began packing things away again. There was no point in arguing or attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction; Della would keep bringing it back to Oscar being a demon.
Evie could feel her mother’s eyes on her as she moved around the room, wrapping the ceramic saints in paper and could picture her chewing angrily on her tongue, but Evie refused to engage in this conversation anymore.
"Mary and Henry were your biological parents." She stood up, tossed a small, brass key onto the table next to the box and stormed off. A few seconds later, her bedroom door slammed.
Evie went still, staring straight ahead as her brain struggled to comprehend what she’d just been told. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to burst into her mother’s room and tell her off for being so selfish and cruel, or pretend she never heard it.
Her eyes fell on the box, and without thinking about it, she returned to the couch and sat down, hesitating briefly before picking up the key and unlocking the box.
Inside were a bundle of documents; her adoption papers and several legal agreements executed between Oscar and Della Stanley and Henry and Mary Sloane.
The adoption was closed, so the biological parents were not named on the official record. However, the accompanying legal documents outlined several terms and conditions agreed upon by both parties:
Parentage and Custody
1.1 The child, hereafter referred to as Evelyn, is the biological offspring of Henry Sloane and Mary Sloane.
1.2 Upon delivery, full legal and physical custody shall transfer to Oscar Stanley and Della Stanley.
1.3 The adoption shall be closed. All identifying information regarding the child’s biological lineage shall remain sealed and undisclosed.
Disclosure and Confidentiality
2.1 The biological parentage of Evelyn shall remain confidential in perpetuity.
2.2 None of the undersigned, nor their heirs or representatives, shall disclose or confirm the existence of any biological relationship between Evelyn and any member of the Sloane family.
2.3 Disclosure shall be permissible only upon mutual written consent of all living signatories or by order of a competent court.
Custodial Authority and Involvement
3.1 Henry and Mary Sloane shall have no custodial, decision-making, or disciplinary authority.
3.2 Contact between Evelyn and the Sloane family shall occur only with the consent of Oscar and Della Stanley.
Financial and Inheritance Rights
4.1 Evelyn shall have no claim to the Sloane family estate, trusts, or assets.
4.2 Evelyn shall have no ownership interest in Sloane Technologies or any affiliated entities by virtue of a biological relationship.
4.3 Henry and Mary Sloane shall bear no financial responsibility for the child’s care, education, or support.
Intent and Enforcement
5.1 The intent of this agreement is to ensure privacy and to protect the welfare of the child.
5.2 These provisions shall remain binding in perpetuity and enforceable by the estates or legal representatives of any signatory party.
Addendum I – Amendment to Section 3 (Custodial Authority and Involvement)
(Executed approximately four months following the original agreement)
Whereas the undersigned acknowledge the formation of a significant emotional bond between Thomas Henry Sloane (“Tommy”) and Evelyn Stanley, the following clause shall be appended to Section 3:
3.3 The personal relationship between Thomas Henry Sloane and Evelyn Stanley shall not be restricted, discouraged, or interfered with by any party. The nature and extent of said relationship shall be permitted to progress naturally and without disclosure of biological kinship.
All other terms and provisions of the original agreement shall remain in full force and effect.
Signed and executed under seal by the surviving parties on this date.
It was followed by the signatures of hers and Tommy’s parents.
Shoving the papers back into the box, Evie snapped it shut and locked it again, her breath coming fast. She didn’t know what to do with what she’d just read. Her first thought was that Tommy needed to know.
Suddenly desperate to be anywhere but near Della, she shoved the key into her jeans pocket, grabbed the box, and all but bolted from the apartment.
The hour drive to the Tower was spent with Evie questioning everything. Why did Henry and Mary give her up? Why go through the pregnancy at all if they didn’t want another child? Why didn’t they want her and Tommy to know they were related?
Now that she knew, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it. Other than their eyes and the age gap, they could almost pass for twins.
She’d suspected for years that she wasn’t Della and Oscar’s biological child, besides her colouring being so different from theirs, and not looking like anyone on either side of the family, The colouring alone set her apart, her dark hair and blue eyes among a family of redheads, blondes and brown and green eyes, but so did the math.
Della would have been forty-four when she had her.
Not impossible, but rare enough that, combined with everything else, it made adoption the only explanation that ever made sense.
What she hadn’t considered was that Mary and Henry could be her actual parents. Mary would have been fifty, Henry sixty-seven, an age that made her birth almost miraculous.
And how did they hide a forty-week pregnancy from Tommy?
Yes, he’d been away at boarding school, but since her birthday was May 8th, Tommy would have come home for Christmas and Spring Break.
Christmas could have been explained as weight gain if Mary were even showing, but by Spring Break, a baby bump would have been impossible to explain away.
As the elevator whisked her up to Tommy’s penthouse, Evie could feel the beginnings of a panic attack creeping in. Her thoughts spun faster with every passing floor.
What if he thought she was telling him because she wanted a part ownership stake in Sloane Technologies? Or that she wanted her share of his inheritance? Or if she faked the documents? What if the idea of her being his sister was great in theory, but in reality, he didn’t want her to be his sister?