Chapter 9- BRIAN’S LETTER
I left Brian’s letter unopened for three hours.
It sat on the kitchen counter while I made Lily dinner, checked her homework and listened to her explain why her science project needed three different kinds of glitter.
Only after she was asleep did I break the seal.
Emily,
I heard about my mother’s petition. Do not let her near Lily.
I read the sentence twice.
Brian had spent years defending Donna. He had chosen her approval over our marriage, our daughter’s health and eventually his freedom.
Now he was warning me about her.
The letter continued.
There are things the investigators never found. My mother knows they exist. The visitation case is not only about Lily. She wants access to something she believes you have.
I almost stopped reading.
Brian claimed Donna had kept copies of early investment contracts, bank transfers and recorded conversations. He said she had pressured relatives to invest before his construction company was legally authorized to accept certain funds.
He had signed documents.
She had found the people.
At the bottom of the second page, he wrote:
Ask the new owners of your father’s house whether they opened the wall behind the pantry shelves.
I called Evan.
He came over before midnight and read the letter at my kitchen table.
“Could be manipulation,” he said.
“Donna filed for visitation two weeks after the old house was sold.”
Evan looked again at the final paragraph.
“Did Brian ever renovate the pantry?”
“He added shelves after my father died.”
“Did you watch him do it?”
“No.”
The question made my stomach tighten.
The next morning, Maya contacted the attorney representing the couple who had purchased the house.
We did not mention hidden documents. We simply asked whether any unusual objects had been found during renovations.
Their answer came that afternoon.
The owners had begun remodeling the pantry three days earlier.
May you like
Behind the shelves, they had found a narrow metal door.
It required a key.
