Chapter 2: The Envelope Elena Left Behind
I walked out of that surveillance room and straight to the nursery.
Hilda was already there.
She stood in the doorway holding the dinner tray, watching me with that same calm expression she had worn for two years.
"Put it down," I said.
She set the tray on the dresser without a word.
I lifted the lid.
Plain rice.
A few scraps of overcooked vegetable.
No salmon.
No berries.
No supplements.
"Where is the food from the receipts, Hilda?"
She didn't answer.
"Ten thousand dollars a month.
Where did it go?"
She looked at me the way you look at someone who has finally caught up.
"You should ask Calvin that question," she said quietly.
My chest tightened.
"What does Calvin have to do with this?"
Hilda reached into her apron pocket and placed a folded envelope on the dresser beside the tray.
"Elena left this.
She gave it to me the morning before she d*ed.
She told me to hold it until you were ready to see the truth."
My hands wouldn't move.
"She knew something was wrong," Hilda said.
"She was trying to protect the girls.
Not from the woman outside the window."
She paused.
"From someone already in this house."
Behind me, I heard small footsteps.
Rosalyn stood in the hallway, still clutching her stuffed rabbit.
She looked at Hilda.
Then she looked at me.
"Daddy," she whispered.
"The lady outside said Mama sent her."
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What Elena knew before she d*ed changes everything.
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