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?”
