part 2
PART 2
The will reading had been a performance before it became a wound.
Skylar arrived wearing black silk and sunglasses she never removed.
Ava arrived straight from the airport in uniform because her commander had approved emergency leave only forty-eight hours earlier.
She had still smelled faintly of jet fuel and military laundry detergent when she entered the law office.
Her father’s chair was empty.
That was the part she could not look at.
William Monroe had raised two daughters after their mother died, but he had not loved them the same way.
Skylar was his storm.
Ava was his anchor.
That was what Hank once said.
William never repeated it because he knew Skylar would punish anyone who spoke the truth too clearly.
At the reading, attorney Patricia Wells opened the file and began calmly.
Skylar received the family home.
She smiled.
Skylar received the truck.
She smiled wider.
Skylar received the investment account William had labeled liquid household assets.
She looked satisfied.
Then Patricia looked at Ava.
“To Ava Grace Monroe, William leaves the cabin at Blue Heron Lake.”
Skylar laughed.
“Seriously?”
Ava did not move.
Skylar leaned back in her chair.
“He left you the shack?”
Patricia continued.
“Together with all attached property interests, sealed instructions to be delivered upon arrival, and private documents stored on site.”
Skylar waved one hand.
“Attached property interests means raccoons and mold.”
Ava looked down at her hands.
She had held rifles steadier than she held her grief that day.
Skylar turned toward her.
“Don’t look so wounded.”
“You were never home anyway.”
The sentence landed where Skylar intended.
Ava had missed birthdays.
Holidays.
Hospital appointments.
Even the final week of their father’s life because deployment orders do not care about daughters.
She had called every day.
Sometimes William answered.
Sometimes Hank did.
Sometimes nobody did because pain medication had taken him into sleep.
Skylar had been physically closer.
She had never let Ava forget it.
Patricia closed the will.
“There is one more instruction.”
Skylar’s eyes narrowed.
Patricia handed Ava a key.
“Your father requested that you enter the cabin alone before speaking to anyone about it.”
Skylar smirked.
“Dramatic even from the grave.”
Ava held the key.
It was old brass.
Warm from Patricia’s hand.
May you like
She did not know then that her father had just handed her the only door Skylar could not control.
Read the full story 👉 The will seemed to favor Skylar, but the attorney’s strange instruction about Ava entering the cabin alone hinted that the real plan had not been read aloud.
