Chapter 8 - Evelina Contacted June
I did not discover it from Evelina.
June contacted the adoption agency.
The agency contacted me four days after the ballroom incident.
The caseworker’s name was Denise Warren.
“Mr. Carver, we need to discuss unauthorized contact.”
My chest tightened.
“What contact?”
“Ms. Evelina Carver—”
“Avery. We weren’t married.”
A pause.
“Evelina Avery contacted Ms. Whitlock approximately seven weeks ago.”
“How?”
“She appears to have obtained June’s current business contact information online.”
That was not illegal.
June worked at an animal hospital.
Her name was public.
Evelina knew her full name because I had trusted her.
“What did she say?”
“June authorized us to share the messages with you.”
They arrived that afternoon.
First email:
June, my name is Evelina. I am engaged to Lucian Carver and will soon be Hattie’s stepmother. Lucian has told me about the adoption and believes it may be time for Hattie to understand her origins.
Truth mixed with authority Evelina did not have.
June replied cautiously.
Thank you. I’m open to whatever contact Lucian and Hattie’s therapist believe is healthy. Please ask Lucian to contact me through Denise.
Evelina responded:
Lucian is emotionally stuck because of Mara’s death. I’m trying to help him move forward.
June:
I don’t want to go around him.
Evelina:
You wouldn’t be. We are becoming one household.
June:
Until Lucian contacts me directly, I’d rather stay within the agency arrangement.
Clear boundary.
Evelina wrote again two weeks later.
I worry Hattie has built an unhealthy idea that Mara is her only mother.
June did not answer for two days.
Then:
Mara was her mother. I am her birth mother. Those things don’t compete.
I read that line three times.
A woman who had never met Hattie since infancy understood better than my fiancée.
Then Evelina wrote:
You may feel differently once biological children enter the picture.
June responded:
I don’t know what you mean, and I’m uncomfortable continuing this conversation. Please use the agency.
That should have ended it.
Evelina sent one final message.
Hattie needs the truth before she becomes more entrenched in a family position that is not as simple as she thinks.
That phrase.
Family position.
The chair.
The slap.
“Teach the girl her place.”
May you like
It was all connected.
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