Chapter 3 - The Damp Envelope
Paige knelt slowly beside the rose bush.
Tabitha moved as if to stop her.
Paige turned her head.
The look alone froze her.
Not because Paige was stronger.
Because the phone was still recording.
Tabitha remembered and stepped back, eyes wide, lips trembling in fury.
Paige brushed wet soil from the envelope.
It was sealed.
Damp around the edges.
Protected beneath a layer of leaves and pale petals.
No readable writing showed from where Tabitha stood, but Paige recognized the shape of the handwriting immediately.
Her father’s hand.
Firm.
Slanted.
A little impatient, as if even ink had to keep up with him.
Her chest tightened so sharply she nearly dropped it.
Tabitha’s voice cracked.
“Give that to me.”
Paige stood with the envelope held against her chest.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“I know who wrote it.”
Tabitha swallowed.
The garden wind moved through the rose bushes between them.
A few white petals fell onto the stone path.
Paige looked at Tabitha again.
“You said Kyle helped prove my father was no longer thinking clearly.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Paige’s eyes lowered toward her apron pocket.
Tabitha’s face drained.
The recording.
Her own voice had trapped her before she realized the garden was listening.
Paige pulled out her smartphone without stopping the recording. Her hand trembled only once.
Tabitha watched every movement.
“Who are you calling?”
Paige did not answer.
She selected one contact.
Penelope.
Her father’s estate attorney.
The phone rang.
Tabitha took a step backward toward the garden gate.
“Paige, don’t be stupid.”
Paige held the envelope tighter.
“You came here to throw me out of my father’s home.”
Tabitha’s lips trembled.
“You don’t know what Calvin has.”
“No,” Paige said softly. “But now I know what you’re afraid I found.”
The line connected.
Paige placed the call on speaker.
A calm older woman’s voice filled the rose garden.
“Paige?”
Paige’s eyes did not leave the envelope.
“I found something under the roses.”
Penelope went silent for one chilling beat.
Then her voice returned, grave and controlled.
May you like
“Do not open it yet.”
Read Chapter 4 👉 Because Penelope knew about the hidden envelope before Paige described it, and Tabitha’s panic proved it mattered.
