Chapter 265
Evelyn’s POV
Well, my stepmother was certainly right about one thing; I was not fully prepared for the amount of backlash that her little stunt was going to cause.
For the last few days, I’d been dealing with the somewhat anticipated and highly irritating backlash from various other news outlets. They all wanted a personal interview, having me explain my actions and give a reason for this ‘inhuman treatment,’ as my stepmother had phrased it.
But I refused. Each and every time the phone rang, demanding that I give some kind of reply, I slammed the phone down in refusal.
It was becoming too much. So much so that I wasn’t able to focus on the work that I needed to. It was then I realized that this was part of my stepmother’s revenge. She knew that kind of backlash I would be
experiencing.
She purposely wanted things to become too hectic for me to handle.
No matter, it wasn’t as though I was planning on calling my father to insist that they come back. Nope. It was never going to happen.
I sat back in my chair behind my mother’s old desk and sighed. I was sort of hoping that I would have heard from Kane by now. I’d sent him at least two separate letters but haven’t heard a thing back from
him.
I wanted to tell him about the progress I’d been making and the troubles that my family tried to cause. It wasn’t as though I was looking for suggestions or solutions; I simply missed the conversation between
At night, there was no escaping the cold feeling that seeped through me as I lay in bed alone. Being away from him has left this emptiness within my chest that I hadn’t been ready to deal with.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Yes?” I called out.
One of the maids came into the room with a meek expression on their face.
“Miss Evelyn?”
“Hello, Mary. What is it?”
She silently held up the phone, signaling for me to take this one call that apparently came in. I gave her a pointed look.
“I thought I made it clear that I wasn’t going to take any further calls to any news reporters,” I remarked.
“You did, Miss. However, this isn’t a news reporter,” she said. My brows raised. “In fact, I believe the
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woman on the other end said that her name was Cheryl.”
I flew out of my chair and quickly snagged the phone while muttering a hushed word of thanks under my breath.
“Hello?” I gasped.
The stern, unbreakable tone of my mother’s oldest friend rang through the speaker. “Evelyn. Tell me why I had to find out about you tossing your family out of the house through some sleazy gossip column.”
I let out a disgruntled noise from the back of my throat and fell back into my chair. “Compliments from my evil stepmother,” I said. “She assured me that I was going to feel the full power of her wrath one way
or another.”
“Ah, so she’s decided to take the ‘social’ route, then,” she noted. “She thinks that if she paints you as the villain, then people are going to turn their backs on you.”
I let out a long breath. “Is it terrible that I don’t really care about public opinion?” I asked.
Cheryl laughed. “Knowing you, of course not,” she mused. “However, I would be remiss in my duties and promise to your mother if I didn’t play some part in this unsavory scandal.”
A chill began to roll down my spine. If I knew Cherly, she was not a woman to be trifled with.
“Cheryl, would you and the other ladies do me the honor of coming to stay at my home while I try and sort this matter out?” I proposed.
I could imagine her smile on the other end of the phone. “Oh, my dear, I thought you would never ask,” she said. “I’ll call the others. You may expect us by the late afternoon.”
As soon as the call ended, I quickly got up and called what few staff members were still lingering about the property. Thanks to my stepmother’s toxic trait of overspending, the estate couldn’t afford the right amount of help that it so desperately needed.
While I instructed the maids to begin preparing three extra rooms, I headed to the kitchens to begin working on refreshments.
By quarter after three, I heard the car pull up outside. I raced to the main doors and graciously invited Cheryl, Brooke, and Angie inside. For a moment, they all glanced around the rooms, likely reminiscing about the time when my mother was still around.
I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m trying to get the house back to what it looked like before…”
“Before that horrible woman bewitched your father and moved in,” Brooke offered with a look of understanding.
“Exactly.”
A supportive smile curved Cheryl’s lips. “It’s alright. I’m sure that in time this place will rid itself of the
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ghosts those horrid people left behind.”
I led them to the main living room, where I had tea already waiting. Once we were all properly situated, Cheryl wasted no time jumping into the matter at hand.
“Alright, so I’ve been doing some thinking, and I believe that it would be wise for you to give your own
interview,” she announced.
My shoulders sagged. “Honestly, by the fifth report I hung up on, I was truly considering it.”
The others giggled behind their tea cups.
“Think about it, Evelyn. It would give you the opportunity to tell your side of the story,” Angie offered.
“It’s true. I think that’s what so many people are waiting for,” Brooke said.
“While it may be tempting to try and turn the other cheek to this situation, I think there’s a better way to take action,” Cheryl acknowledged. “We have a close friend that works for one of the more major newspaper companies in the region. Given her profession, she happens to be one of the more honest journalists.”
“Tell them the truth. Once people know your stepmother’s true colors, you watch how quickly everyone
reacts,” Brooke stated.
I glanced around the group. “How much should I tell them?”
“Tell them however much you want the public to know,” Angie explained.
“She’s right, Evelyn. You’re in a position where you get to run the narrative you want the public to know,” Cheryl tells her. “Who is Evelyn Silverwood? Tell the world about your relationship with your family. Your real mother. How your father and stepmother ruined your family home through greed and negligence.”
My first thought was to expose my father’s affair. If I was going to go head-to-head against my stepmother, I was going to need to start from the very beginning.
As the gears in my head turned, I could feel this grueling, malicious sensation bubbling from the back of my mind. Along with a dark, shameful secret I could never bring myself to admit…
I was planning on relishing that moment. Bringing that devious woman to her knees and having the whole world scorn and turn away from her.
This feeling also worried me. Because what exactly did it mean? Was I on my way to becoming a dark Alpha?
That night, I wrote another letter to Kane, telling him about what I planned to do. I hoped, deep down, he would write back.
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