Chapter 7 - What Robert Left Behind

I barely slept. At six the next morning, I told Daniel about Sophie's warning. He asked me not to question her further; children should not be turned into witnesses by frightened adults. If she had seen something important, investigators could handle it. I hated that he was right.

Instead, I went back through the records Robert had left in his desk. The letter was genuine. So was the trust. There was also a yellow envelope containing the original receipt for the house's final mortgage payment, a list of every repair Robert had made, and a handwritten note from Evan thanking his father for teaching him how to fix a broken window.

I remembered the afternoon Evan wrote it. At nineteen, he had been angry that Robert favored the business over him. Robert handed him a hammer and said every good repair began by admitting what was broken.

"I don't want the shop," Evan said. "I want you to trust me."

"Then give me a reason to," Robert answered. They made peace that weekend.

At nine, Daniel arrived with a copy of a second document filed alongside the deed. It was a handwritten statement claiming Robert had promised to transfer the house to Evan before his death. The statement bore what looked like Robert's signature and two witness names. One witness was a retired neighbor who had moved to Arizona. The other was Brooke's former business partner.

"Have you seen this before?" Daniel asked.

"No. Robert never wrote this. He never called the house 'the property' when he spoke about it. He called it home."

Daniel studied the page. "Handwriting and paper analysis will matter more. We'll send it to the investigator."

I remembered Brooke visiting after Robert's funeral with a box of photographs. She had hugged me and offered to organize his papers. Grief had made every offered hand look like a gift.

I told Daniel.

Then my phone rang. It was Evan.

"I need to see you," he said. His voice sounded scraped raw. "Alone. Please."

We met at the public garden near the library, where the benches were wet from overnight rain. Evan arrived without his wedding ring. He kept turning it in his pocket, pressing the band into his palm.

"Brooke says you found Dad's letter," he said.

"I did."

"She says he wrote it because he was angry with me."

"He wrote it because he wanted me to be safe. Those things can both be true."

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Evan swallowed. "There's something I haven't told you about the deed."

He looked up at me, and I knew whatever came next would change the shape of our family.