Vance,” he said.

“I was Julian’s attorney, and the only person alive he fully trusted.

And Julian Vance was many things, Evelyn.

He was a brilliant engineer.

He was, in some ways, a deeply flawed man, who made a terrible choice a long time ago and spent the rest of his life paying for it.

But more than anything else, for the last two decades, he was a man who devoted his entire existence to protecting you, quietly, invisibly, at enormous cost, without ever once letting the people who destroyed his life discover that you existed.” He nodded toward the box in my arms.

“Open it.