Chapter 9 - The Box Beneath the Roses
Thomas crossed the dark garden at full speed.
Emergency lights glowed through the mansion windows behind him.
The greenhouse stood beyond the rose garden.
Its glass walls reflected the red lights like fire.
Robert was visible inside.
He carried a wooden box against his chest.
Thomas reached the door.
It was locked.
“Open it.”
Robert looked toward him through the glass.
Then he placed the box on a metal table.
He removed a silver lighter from his pocket.
Thomas struck the glass with his palm.
“Do not touch those letters.”
Robert lit the flame.
Detective Ellis and Nolan reached the greenhouse.
Nolan pulled a master key from his ring.
The lock did not turn.
“It has been changed.”
Inside, Robert opened the box.
Bundles of letters lay beneath old photographs.
Rebecca arrived with Mrs. Alvarez.
She saw a photograph on top.
“That’s Mom.”
Thomas turned.
“Keep the children back.”
Rebecca refused to move.
Robert held the lighter over the first letter.
Thomas’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“If you burn that, there will be nothing left between us.”
Robert looked at him through the glass.
“There has been nothing between us for years.”
He lowered the flame.
Thomas grabbed a metal garden chair.
He struck the narrow glass panel beside the lock.
The glass cracked.
Robert hesitated.
Thomas struck it again.
The panel broke inward.
Nolan reached through and opened the door.
Robert dropped the lighter into the box.
A corner of one letter caught fire.
Thomas knocked the box from the table.
Detective Ellis forced Robert against the wall.
Nolan stamped out the small flame.
Thomas dropped to his knees beside the scattered letters.
One envelope had been addressed to Rebecca.
Another carried Samuel’s name.
A third was marked for Jacob.
All three were in Emily’s handwriting.
Rebecca crouched beside him.
“Mom wrote those?”
Thomas nodded.
“Before she died.”
Helen entered the greenhouse.
Her voice was sharp.
“Those letters were not supposed to be given to them yet.”
Thomas stood slowly.
“You told me they were lost.”
“They would only confuse the children.”
“You hid the last words their mother wrote to them.”
Helen’s expression remained rigid.
“She was angry and heavily medicated.”
Rebecca picked up her envelope.
“You read my letter?”
Helen did not answer.
Thomas saw a second bundle beneath the photographs.
It contained medical bills.
Hospital correspondence.
And a life insurance policy.
The beneficiary had originally been Thomas.
A later document redirected the payment to a private family account managed by Robert.
Thomas examined the signature.
It looked like Emily’s.
He knew immediately that it was not.
“She could barely hold a pen during her last week.”
Robert struggled against Detective Ellis.
“She wanted the family protected.”
Thomas looked at the amount.
Two million dollars.
“Where is the money?”
Robert said nothing.
Peter had followed them into the greenhouse.
He saw the policy.
“You used Emily’s insurance to pay the first investors.”
Robert’s silence was enough.
Thomas looked at the letters scattered across the floor.
His parents had stolen from his dying wife.
Then they had stolen her final words from her children.
Detective Ellis placed handcuffs on Robert.
Helen took one step backward.
A uniformed officer stopped her.
Rebecca opened her letter with trembling fingers.
A burned piece of paper slipped from inside.
Thomas picked it up.
It was not part of Emily’s letter.
It was a handwritten note from Helen.
May you like
ROBERT, EMILY KNOWS ABOUT THE TRANSFER.
DO NOT LET THOMAS SEE HER ALONE.
