Chapter 19 - THE NEXT WIFE
Rebecca’s letter was four pages long.
Emma read it aloud in Sarah’s kitchen after the repairs began.
If you are reading this, they tried the same thing again.
Sarah closed her eyes.
Rebecca described Linda’s pattern with frightening precision.
A story prepared before the incident happened.
Then came the line Sarah could barely hear.
The hardest part will not be what Linda does to you. It will be watching the man you love decide that keeping his mother happy is easier than keeping you safe.
Sarah looked toward the living room.
Miles was building a tower with blocks.
Paul stood near the window, healthier now, still learning what freedom felt like.
If you survive it, do not waste your life trying to prove you were worth defending. You were. He simply failed to do it.
Just tears she had been too busy to allow.
Three months later, Linda pleaded not guilty.
Pike turned on both of them.
Sarah stopped measuring justice by speed.
Transferred Miles to a new preschool.
Sold Jason’s remaining interest in his failed company through the bankruptcy court.
The house stayed hers.
No forged deed.
One Sunday afternoon, Sarah stood in the living room holding a fresh cleaning towel.
Miles ran past with a cup of grape juice.
“Walking feet,” she called.
Sarah stared at the purple spot.
Miles’s eyes grew huge.
Jason staring at the floor.
Then Sarah started laughing.
“It’s okay?”
“It’s juice.”
Sarah expected Tessa.
Instead, a courier handed her a certified envelope.
Federal investigators had located money connected to Linda’s scheme.
At the bottom was a handwritten note from Harris.
There’s one more property nobody can identify.
Sarah looked at the attached address.
It was two streets away.
The listed owner was a woman named Margaret Hayes.
Sarah knew that name.
She had seen it every Christmas for seven years.
May you like
Linda’s sister.
And suddenly the Mitchell family’s secrets had one final door left to open.
