Chapter 3 - The Bottom Drawer
Andrew barely slept.
At eight the next morning, he called an attorney named Maya Torres, gave her the clinic paperwork, and asked how to retrieve Emma's belongings without another confrontation.
"Don't show up angry at the door," Maya said.
"Document everything, keep communications in writing, and let me arrange the property pickup."
"It's my house."
"It may be, but your wife is pregnant, you struck her, and a child was harmed. All of that matters."
He hated hearing the whole truth from a stranger.
He needed to hear it anyway.
Zoe, who had temporarily moved in with her sister, agreed to meet the attorney's property coordinator at the house.
By noon, Andrew received photographs from the pickup.
Emma's bed was untouched, but the maple desk had vanished.
A pale rectangle marked where it had stood for four years.
He called Clara through Maya's arranged line.
"Where is Emma's desk?"
"You slapped me in my own home and now you're asking about furniture?" Clara said.
"I'm asking because it belonged to Nora and I promised Emma I'd protect it."
"Our baby needs space. You'll understand when you're ready to care about this child."
"I care about both children. Where is it?"
Judith's voice came from the background.
"Tell him the movers picked up the trash."
Clara ended the call.
Tessa remembered something Andrew hadn't.
Nora kept Emma's birthday letters in a locked drawer beneath the writing surface.
She'd written one for each birthday up to eighteen, knowing she might not live to deliver them.
"Nora made me promise they would stay with the desk," Tessa said.
"Not because she feared another wife. Because she wanted Emma to have something every year."
Andrew stared at the empty rectangle in the photograph.
For the first time, the missing furniture felt less like spite and more like theft.
Then Maya forwarded a receipt Zoe had found tucked beneath Clara's planner.
May you like
It bore the name HOLLIS ESTATE AUCTIONS and listed one maple desk, one quilt, and a sealed document box.
The collection date was three days before the shower.
