Chapter 2
I stared at my father’s letter until the words blurred.
Do not let her know what is underneath the house.
My father had always been cautious.
Private.
Sometimes frustratingly secretive.
But he had never been dramatic.
If he wrote a warning like that, he believed something terrible could happen.
And something terrible had happened.
I folded the letter.
“Tell me.”
Rosa looked at Caitlyn.
“Not in front of her.”
The paramedic had finished checking my daughter’s lungs.
“She should be evaluated at the hospital,” he told me. “She’s stable, but she inhaled a lot of smoke.”
“I’m going with her.”
“Of course.”
Rosa touched my arm.
“I’ll come.”
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“Stay here.”
“Emma—”
“If there’s something in this house Melissa wants badly enough to hurt Caitlyn over, I don’t want it left alone.”
The police officer heard me.
“I can have a unit remain until the fire department clears the property.”
“Thank you.”
I crouched beside Caitlyn.
“We’re going to the hospital, okay?”
She nodded.
“Will Grandpa be there?”
The question crushed me.
Caitlyn still asked for him when she was scared.
“No, baby.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“But I’m going to be right beside you.”
She reached for my hand.
The ambulance ride felt endless.
Caitlyn’s fingers stayed wrapped around mine.
Every few minutes she coughed.
Every cough made my anger grow.
Melissa had lived with us for two months after losing her apartment.
I had invited her in.
She was my older sister.
Dad’s death had damaged both of us differently.
I believed she needed family.
Now I wondered if she had ever needed family at all.
Maybe she had needed access.
Access to the house.
Access to Dad’s office.
Access to whatever he had hidden.
At the hospital, doctors examined Caitlyn and confirmed that she hadn’t suffered serious lung damage.
Relief nearly brought me to my knees.
I sat beside her bed while she slept.
At 6:17 p.m., my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered quietly.
“Hello?”
“Emma Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“This is Daniel Mercer. I represented your father.”
I sat straighter.
The attorney.
“I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I know.”
“We need to speak tonight.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did Rosa call you?”
“No.”
“Then why tonight?”
Silence.
“Because someone attempted to access your father’s sealed trust account this afternoon.”
I looked at Caitlyn.
“What time?”
“Approximately forty minutes before police were dispatched to your home.”
Everything inside me went still.
“Who?”
“The request was submitted using your identification.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“The signature was wrong.”
Melissa.
It had to be Melissa.
“What account?”
“I’d rather discuss that in person.”
“Mr. Mercer, my sister locked my daughter in a smoke-filled bedroom today.”
His breathing changed.
“Is Caitlyn all right?”
“She will be.”
“I’m coming to the hospital.”
“No. Go to my house.”
“Emma—”
“Rosa is there. So are police officers. Whatever Dad hid, I need to know what it is.”
Another pause.
“All right.”
I ended the call.
Twenty minutes later, Caitlyn woke.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here.”
“Are we going home?”
“Soon.”
She looked toward the door.
“Will Aunt Melissa be there?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
I squeezed her hand.
“I promise.”
That promise mattered more than anything.
I didn’t yet know how difficult Melissa would make it to keep.
The hospital discharged Caitlyn shortly after eight.
When we reached home, three vehicles were parked outside.
A police cruiser.
Rosa’s car.
And a black Mercedes I recognized from my father’s funeral.
Daniel Mercer stood inside the foyer.
He was in his late fifties, silver-haired and serious.
He looked at Caitlyn first.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
She hid behind my leg.
Daniel didn’t push.
He looked at me.
“We should talk.”
I turned to Rosa.
“Can you take Caitlyn to the kitchen?”
Caitlyn grabbed my hand.
“No.”
I knelt.
“I’ll be right here.”
“Aunt Melissa said that too.”
The words cut through me.
I pulled her close.
“I am not Aunt Melissa.”
She buried her face against my shoulder.
“I know.”
Rosa took her gently.
Daniel waited until they disappeared.
Then he opened his briefcase.
“Your father changed his estate plan six weeks before he died.”
“I knew he left me the house.”
“He left you much more than the house.”
“How much?”
Daniel placed a document on the table.
I looked at the number.
Then looked again.
“That can’t be right.”
“It is.”
My father had owned a regional construction company.
Successful, yes.
But not enormously wealthy.
The document showed assets worth more than forty-eight million dollars.
“Where did this come from?”
“Land.”
“What land?”
“Your father began buying property thirty years ago through holding companies. Most of it surrounds a proposed transportation corridor.”
I shook my head.
“Melissa knows?”
“She knew he owned something.”
“But not how much.”
“Correct.”
“And the trust?”
Daniel nodded.
“Your father created separate trusts for you and Caitlyn.”
My chest tightened.
“For Caitlyn?”
“Eight million dollars, accessible for education and then fully at age twenty-five.”
I sat down.
“Why would Melissa try to access it using my name?”
“Because she has no inheritance.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Your father removed Melissa from the will.”
“Why?”
Daniel hesitated.
“That is what he asked me not to discuss until you read his letter.”
“I read it.”
“Not that letter.”
He reached into his briefcase.
Another envelope appeared.
My name again.
Dad’s handwriting again.
Daniel pushed it toward me.
I opened it.
Emma,
I know you will want to believe your sister can change.
That has always been your weakness.
You remember Melissa as the girl who held your hand when you were afraid of thunderstorms.
I remember the woman she became.
Three years ago, I discovered she had been taking money from the company.
Not small amounts.
Nearly two million dollars.
I confronted her privately.
She cried.
She apologized.
I agreed not to report her because she promised to repay it.
Instead, she attempted to falsify documents transferring one of my holding companies into her name.
I stopped her.
She told me that someday everything would belong to her anyway.
That was when I understood.
She no longer saw this family as people.
She saw us as property.
My hands trembled.
The letter continued.
If anything happens to me unexpectedly, Daniel has instructions.
And Emma, if Melissa ever becomes interested in the basement wall beneath my study, protect Caitlyn first.
Money can be replaced.
Your daughter cannot.
I slowly lowered the page.
“What basement wall?”
Daniel looked at Rosa.
She had returned silently.
Rosa’s face was white.
“Your father built a concealed room behind it,” she said.
“What’s inside?”
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
Daniel answered.
“Evidence.”
“Of Melissa stealing?”
“Not only Melissa.”
The front door suddenly rattled.
We all turned.
The officer stationed outside shouted.
“Ma’am, stop!”
Then a woman’s voice screamed from the porch.
“Emma!”
My mother.
I rushed into the foyer.
Mom pushed past the officer before he could stop her.
“What have you done?”
Her face was red with fury.
“Mom?”
“You had your own sister arrested?”
“She locked Caitlyn in a room full of smoke.”
“She said it was an accident!”
“It wasn’t.”
“She called me from jail crying!”
“Then she lied to you from jail.”
Mom stared at me.
“You hit her.”
“She grabbed my daughter.”
“She is your sister!”
“And Caitlyn is my child.”
Mom raised one trembling finger.
“You have always turned everyone against Melissa.”
I almost laughed.
The accusation was so absurd it hurt.
“Dad removed her from the will because she stole from him.”
Mom’s expression changed.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Not surprise.
Fear.
Daniel saw it too.
“Mrs. Parker,” he said slowly, “you already knew.”
Mom looked at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
She backed toward the door.
“I came here to tell Emma to drop the charges.”
“I’m not dropping anything.”
“Then you’ll destroy this family.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Melissa did that when she locked Caitlyn in that room.”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears.
“You don’t understand what your father did.”
“What did Dad do?”
She said nothing.
“Mom?”
Rosa whispered my name.
I turned.
She was looking toward the basement door.
It was open.
I knew I had closed it that morning.
Daniel saw it too.
“Was anyone downstairs?”
“No.”
The police officer pulled his flashlight.
“Stay here.”
He descended.
Thirty seconds later, he called up.
“You need to see this.”
I left Caitlyn with Rosa and followed Daniel downstairs.
The basement looked normal at first.
Storage shelves.
Old furniture.
Dad’s workbench.
Then I saw the wall beneath his study.
Someone had smashed through the drywall.
A black opening yawned behind it.
The hidden room.
Daniel rushed forward.
“No.”
Metal cabinets lined the inside.
Most were open.
Papers covered the floor.
One cabinet stood empty.
Daniel stared at it.
“What was there?”
I asked.
He turned toward me.
“A red ledger.”
“What was in the ledger?”
Before he could answer, the officer bent down.
Something rested on the floor beside the cabinet.
A silver bracelet.
May you like
Mom’s bracelet.
The one she had been wearing when she walked through my front door.
