My hands trembled.
I had heard my mother mention the Hale family only once.
She had always refused to explain.
I kept reading.
I didn’t help her when I should have.
That sentence changed everything.
The room seemed to disappear around me.
Rebecca leaned forward.
“What does that mean?”
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t.
Then I reached into the box again.
There was one final object.
A small brass key.
Attached to it was a handwritten note.
“For the room you were never supposed to find.”
I stared at the key.
Richard’s study.
His locked study.
The one room he had always kept locked.
The one room I had never been allowed to enter.
I suddenly understood why he had told me not to open anything until everyone was present.
This wasn’t an inheritance.
It was a confession.
And Richard had left it knowing that, once the truth came out, his children would have to hear it too.
The lawyer closed his folder.
“Mrs. Hale, there’s something else.”
I looked at him.
He reached for another document.
“Your husband changed his will eight months before he died.”
Rebecca sat upright.
“Eight months?”
“Yes.”
“What did he change?”
The lawyer looked directly at her.
