Chapter 1 - The Purse Marlene Tried to Protect
The room went still.
Marlene’s eyes moved toward the beige handbag resting on the glass coffee table in the living room.
Only once.
But I saw it.
So did Lily.
My daughter reached for my hand.
“Dad, please.”
Marlene stepped toward the bedroom door.
“She is trying to distract you.”
“From what?”
“From the fact that she stole something from my purse.”
Lily shook her head violently.
“I didn’t steal it.”
Marlene’s voice sharpened.
“Stop lying.”
Lily flinched so hard that my anger became cold.
I guided her into the hallway and kept myself between them.
“What did you see?”
She looked toward her grandmother.
Marlene smiled.
It was not warmth.
It was a warning.
Lily lowered her voice.
“Grandma was in Mom’s room.”
My wife, Anna, had been sick for nearly two weeks.
At least, that was what Marlene kept telling me.
Anna suffered from migraines and exhaustion after a serious case of influenza. Some mornings she spoke normally. Other days she barely opened her eyes.
Marlene insisted Anna needed silence.
No visitors.
No phone calls.
No questions.
I had trusted her because she had worked as a nurse decades earlier.
I had also trusted her because she was Anna’s mother.
“What was Grandma doing?” I asked.
“She gave Mom something.”
Marlene laughed softly.
“Her medicine.”
Lily’s grip tightened around my fingers.
“Mom said she didn’t want it.”
I turned toward Marlene.
“What medicine?”
“The prescription her doctor gave her.”
“Which doctor?”
She hesitated.
Then she recovered.
“You know the name.”
“No. I don’t.”
Marlene folded her arms.
“Ethan, Anna is ill. Your daughter heard part of an adult conversation and invented the rest.”
Lily began crying again.
“She said Mom wouldn’t wake up next time.”
My entire body went rigid.
Marlene looked at her.
“I never said that.”
“I heard you.”
“You hear what you want.”
“Enough.”
My voice silenced both of them.
I took Lily downstairs.
The beige handbag remained on the coffee table beside a bowl of cereal and the black television remote.
Marlene followed us.
“Do not touch my things.”
Lily pointed toward the bag.
“She put the key in there.”
“What key?”
“I don’t know.”
Marlene lunged toward the table.
My brother, Colin, had entered through the open front door after hearing the shouting from outside. He instinctively stepped into her path.
“What is going on?”
“Move,” Marlene snapped.
I picked up the handbag.
She reached for it.
“Ethan, give that to me.”
“Then explain why you are afraid.”
“I am not afraid. I am insulted.”
Lily pressed against my side.
I unzipped the bag.
Inside were cosmetics, a wallet, several folded receipts, and a thick sealed envelope.
Beneath it rested a small black key.
Lily pointed immediately.
“That’s what she hid.”
Marlene’s face lost all color.
I lifted the key.
A strip of white tape had been wrapped around the metal.
Anna’s bedroom was written across it.
I stared at Marlene.
“Our bedroom does not use a key.”
“The old lock does.”
“What old lock?”
She looked toward the hallway.
That was when I remembered the brass plate on the outside of the upstairs guest room.
The room Marlene claimed contained damaged furniture after a pipe leak.
It had remained locked since Anna became sick.
I lifted the sealed envelope.
Marlene rushed forward.
“You do not understand.”
I pulled it behind my back.
Colin moved between her and Lily.
The envelope carried the name of a private medical clinic I had never heard of.
Beneath the logo were four handwritten words.
For emergency guardianship filing.
My daughter’s name appeared underneath.
Marlene whispered, “Give me that.”
I looked at the key.
Then at the envelope.
“Now everyone gets to hear the truth.”
Upstairs, something struck the floor inside the locked guest room.
A weak voice followed.
“Ethan?”
May you like
It was Anna.
Continue to the next part: Ethan will unlock the forbidden room and discover why Marlene kept Anna hidden while preparing to take legal control of Lily.
