Chapter 4 — Evelyn Shaw Comes Back
The woman standing outside was seventy-two.
Silver hair.
Long green coat.
She carried a canvas tote bag against her chest.
“Daniel?”
He nodded.
“Evelyn Shaw?”
Her eyes immediately filled.
“You look like Margaret.”
Daniel didn’t know how to respond.
Vanessa invited her inside.
The moment Evelyn saw the open metal case, she stopped.
“She kept it.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“Apparently she kept a lot of things she never told me about.”
Evelyn sat down.
“Then I suppose I should start with the part she was most ashamed of.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Which is?”
Evelyn opened her tote bag.
She removed an old play script.
THE SUMMER WINDOW.
Across the title page:
Written by Evelyn Shaw.
Daniel recognized the title from the theater program.
“You wrote it?”
Evelyn nodded.
“When I was nineteen.”
It was a small one-act play about two sisters reconnecting after years apart.
Westfield Playhouse selected it for a regional youth-theater festival.
Margaret played one of the sisters.
Evelyn played the other.
The production won.
Then something unexpected happened.
A visiting director named Paul Merritt asked to adapt the play for a larger community theater.
Evelyn was thrilled.
Margaret was too.
But when the adapted version premiered the following year…
Evelyn’s name was gone.
The program credited:
Written by Paul Merritt.
Daniel stared at her.
“He stole it?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“That’s what I thought.”
Then:
“For thirty years.”
Daniel frowned.
“What changed?”
Evelyn looked toward the metal case.
“I learned Margaret was the one who tried hardest to stop him.”