Chapter 8 - The Phone Keeps Recording
The phone inside Paige’s apron pocket felt warm now.
A small rectangle of proof pressed against fabric and soil.
Tabitha could not stop staring at it.
Every time Paige shifted, Tabitha’s eyes followed the pocket.
It was almost pitiful.
Almost.
A few minutes earlier, Tabitha had stormed into the garden with her finger pointed, her heels striking stone, her face alive with victory.
Tomorrow this house belongs to Calvin and me.
Now she stood near the gate, terrified by a phone she could not reach and an envelope she could not explain.
Paige raised the phone slightly, keeping Penelope on speaker.
“Should I send you the recording?”
Tabitha lunged half a step forward.
“Don’t!”
Paige stopped moving.
Penelope’s voice sharpened.
“Do not come closer, Tabitha.”
Tabitha froze.
Her chest rose and fell violently.
The diamonds at her throat trembled.
Paige looked at her.
“That sounded urgent.”
Tabitha’s eyes glittered with rage.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“No,” Paige said. “But you do.”
The sentence struck cleanly.
Tabitha recoiled as if the rose thorns had reached her again.
Penelope spoke with controlled gravity.
“Paige, I want you to listen carefully. The envelope matters, but her statement matters too.”
Tabitha whispered, “Statement?”
“You said Kyle helped you prove my father was no longer thinking clearly,” Paige said.
Tabitha shook her head.
“No.”
“You said it in my father’s garden.”
“No.”
“You said it because you thought I would be too devastated to understand what you meant.”
Tabitha’s face crumpled with fury.
“You are nothing without that old man.”
Paige’s breath caught.
For one second, pain entered her face.
Then calm returned.
“You’re wrong.”
She looked at the mansion.
Then at the roses.
Then at the envelope.
“I am exactly who he trusted.”
Tabitha’s mouth opened.
May you like
No answer came.
Read Chapter 9 👉 Because Tabitha tried to reduce Paige to grief, but the hidden envelope proved her father had trusted her with the final move.
