Chapter 6 - GRANDMA’S BOX
Daniel stopped on the porch when he saw the patrol car.
He held the box against his chest. “I was bringing Emily her things.”
“You entered without asking,” I said.
“You gave me a key.”
“I asked for it back when I left.”
He looked at the officer. “We’re married.”
The officer asked him to put the box down. Daniel did, slowly. He kept telling us the window had been open and he had only come to help. But dust lay undisturbed on the sill. His key was in his pocket.
He returned it when I asked again.
Inside, drawers had been opened in Grandma’s bedroom. The box contained the will and a few letters, but the original deed was gone. Nora arrived while the officer was taking notes. She told me the recorded copies would still be available and urged me to photograph the room as we found it.
Daniel stood near the doorway, watching.
“You made this ugly,” he said.
I turned to him. “You came into my house.”
“I came to get what belongs to us.”
Grandma’s house had been in my family long before I met him. Hearing him call it ours made my skin crawl.
After the officers left, Nora stayed while Rachel and I checked every room. Nothing valuable was missing. Daniel had left the silverware and an envelope of cash in a kitchen drawer. He had come for papers.
I found one thing he’d missed.
Taped beneath the bottom of Grandma’s box was a small key and a note in her slanted handwriting:
Emily, if anyone pressures you about the house, ask what happened to the orchard.
I read it twice. Grandma had owned a narrow strip of land behind the backyard. She always called it “the orchard,” though only two apple trees remained.
Nora leaned closer. “Is that part of your property?”
“I thought so.”
She checked the address on her phone. The recorded lien described the house lot. Attached to it was a survey with a second parcel number.
The orchard.
“Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars,” Nora said quietly. “That number makes more sense if they’re borrowing against both pieces of land.”
“Why would Michael want the orchard?”
Nora looked up. “I’m going to check who owns the lots behind it.”
May you like
Before she could call, headlights swept across Grandma’s front window. A dark sedan stopped at the curb. Margaret stepped out, holding my missing deed.
She looked straight at me through the glass and smiled.
