Chapter 1
"My sister locked the bedroom door from the outside. Then the smoke started coming in. Caitlyn was only seven years old.
Barefoot, crying, and pounding on the door of the bedroom she had grown up in, she screamed for her mother.
“Mommy! Please! There’s smoke!”
I had come home early and heard her before I even reached the stairs.
I ran toward the room.
My sister, Melissa, suddenly stepped into the hallway.
“Don’t panic,” she said quickly. “The smoke is from the fireplace. Caitlyn locked herself in.”
But the key was still hanging from Melissa’s wrist.
I grabbed it, opened the door, and pulled my daughter into my arms.
Then Caitlyn showed me what she had been protecting.
A scorched envelope.
Melissa’s face went completely pale.
“Give me that.”
I opened it.
Inside was a property document bearing my late father’s signature.
The house we were standing in—
wasn’t mine.
According to the document, it belonged to Caitlyn.
And attached to it was a handwritten note:
Do not let Melissa know this exists.
I slowly looked at my sister.
She backed away.
Then Caitlyn whispered against my shoulder:
“Aunt Melissa was burning the other papers.”
Melissa stopped moving.
May you like
And suddenly, I knew the locked door had never been about keeping Caitlyn inside.
It was about keeping one secret from getting out.
