Chapter 6: The Third Page
I sat at my kitchen table with the letter flat in front of me.
I had read the first two pages the night the envelope arrived.
I had read them again before meeting Daniel.
I knew them almost by heart now — the apology, the confession about Daniel, the warning about the legal challenge.
I turned to the third page.
Larry's handwriting was worse here.
Slower.
The letters pressed harder into the paper, like the effort of writing had become physical.
*Sarah, I need to tell you about Reeves.*
*My brother has been after that land since our father d*ed.
I never wanted it.
I never wanted anything from that family after I left.
But I couldn't sign it over to him.
Our father was specific in his will.
The land was to stay in trust for my children, or their children, or whoever came after me.
Reeves was never supposed to have it.*
*About two years ago, Reeves found me at the shelter.
I hadn't seen him in over twenty years.
He didn't come to help me.
He came with papers.
He wanted me to sign the trustee transfer.
I refused.
He came back three more times.
I refused every time.*
*The last time he came, he told me he would have me declared incompetent.
That he would go to a judge and say I was unfit to make decisions.
That nobody would believe a homeless man over him.*
*I don't know if he found a way to do it without me.
I don't know what he filed or what he forged.
But I know Reeves.
And I know he didn't stop.*
I turned to the fourth page.
My hands were steady now, in the way hands go steady when the shock has already passed and what is left is just clarity.
*The reason I asked you to marry me was not only dignity, Sarah.
I want to be honest with you now, even though I wasn't honest with you then.*
*I asked you because I trusted you.
Because in two years of mornings, you were the only person who sat with me like I was a person.
And because I needed someone whose name would be on the record.
Someone real.
Someone who couldn't be dismissed.*
*I thought if I had a wife — if there was a legal next of kin who wasn't Reeves — it would be harder for him to take what isn't his.*
*I used you, Sarah.
I used your kindness.
And I am more sorry for that than I can say in a letter.*
*But I also left you something.
Not as payment.
As the truth of what I should have said out loud.*
*Look in the envelope again.
All the way to the bottom.*
I picked up the envelope from the table where I had left it.
I turned it upside down.
A small key fell out.
Brass.
Old.
A paper tag tied to it with a piece of string, with a handwritten address and a storage unit number.
Underneath the address, Larry had written three words.
*This is everything.*
I closed my hand around the key.
My phone rang.
I looked at the screen.
Not Victor Marsh this time.
Daniel.
"Sarah." His voice was tight.
"Reeves just filed an emergency injunction.
He's trying to freeze the estate assets before you can access anything.
His lawyer is claiming you have already been in contact with the storage facility."
I looked at the key in my palm.
"I haven't been anywhere," I said.
"I know.
But he filed it an hour ago." A pause.
"Sarah, if that injunction goes through before Grace can respond, everything gets locked.
Whatever my father left — you won't be able to touch it."
"Call Grace," I said.
"Right now.
Tell her about the injunction."
"I already did.
She wants you in her office first thing tomorrow." Another pause, shorter this time.
"She also said to tell you — don't go to that storage unit tonight."
I looked at the key.
"She said tonight specifically," Daniel added.
"She thinks Reeves may be watching."
May you like
I set the key down on the table next to the letter.
Outside, a car moved slowly past my window and didn't stop.
