Chapter 14 - The Key I Gave Him
Tyler showed me the security footage without making me ask.
Marissa had entered through the garage.
Marcus followed her, carrying a cardboard box.
They went straight to the filing cabinet in my study.
The garage code was one I'd shared with Tyler years ago.
He'd told them it still worked.
He had forgotten that I was changing locks, but he hadn't forgotten the code.
“Why?” I asked.
“Marissa said there were documents proving the house was supposed to go to her.
She said you were hiding them.”
“So you sent her into my home?”
“I didn't think they'd take anything.”
On the screen Marcus opened the cabinet and pulled out Harold's blue ledger, where he'd recorded every payment on Alder Lane.
Marissa rifled through a drawer and removed a folder of old tax papers.
She also took a small wooden box containing Harold's wedding ring.
Something inside me went quiet.
The rental house was property.
The ring was the forty-nine years of marriage that property had helped make possible.
“Call the police,” I told Leah.
Tyler reached for my arm.
“Please don't make this worse.”
I pulled away.
“Worse than strangers stealing my husband's ring?”
He flinched.
At my house, Nora stood beside the open filing cabinet.
Drawers hung crookedly.
Paper littered the carpet.
She didn't try to tidy it up before the officers came.
Marissa called while Officer Reyes was photographing the scene.
I answered on speaker.
“We took our family's things,” Marissa said.
“Don't make another scene.”
“Harold's ring wasn't yours.”
“Your grandson has rights.”
“Then let him explain those rights to the officer standing beside me.”
The line went dead.
Reyes took Tyler aside to ask about the access code.
May you like
When he returned, his cheeks were wet.
“Grandma,” he said, “I told her where you keep the spare key to your safe too.”
