Chapter 11: Elizabeth’s Letter
William did not deny that he had hidden something.
When Sarah returned home and asked about her mother, he sat at the kitchen table for a long time without speaking.
Finally, he walked to his study and unlocked a metal safe.
Inside was a sealed envelope bearing Sarah’s name.
Elizabeth’s handwriting covered the front.
Sarah’s hands shook.
“Why didn’t you give me this?”
“Because your mother asked me to wait until you were ready.”
“I’m thirty-four years old.”
“I know.”
“When would I have been ready?”
William looked older than he had the day before.
“When you stopped believing that love required you to forgive everything.”
Sarah opened the envelope.
The letter had been written three days before Elizabeth’s death.
Her mother described years of intimidation from her own older brother, Thomas, who had attempted to control the family company and trust. Elizabeth believed Thomas had tampered with financial records and feared he might harm her.
She had planned to meet federal investigators.
She died before the meeting.
“Was her crash an accident?” Sarah asked.
“The investigation was inconclusive,” William said. “Her brake system was too damaged to determine the cause.”
Sarah lowered the letter.
“David knew.”
“He found documents in your trust files. I believe Margaret found them first.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You had just lost your mother. Thomas disappeared before charges could be filed. I spent years trying to find proof.”
“What happened to him?”
“He changed his name and left the country.”
Sarah read the final paragraph of the letter.
If anything happens to me, protect Sarah from Thomas. He believes the trust belongs to him.
A photograph was clipped to the final page.
It showed Elizabeth as a young woman standing beside Thomas.
Sarah stared at the man’s face.
She had seen him before.
Not in photographs.
At Margaret’s house.
He had attended Emma’s second birthday party under the name Theodore Grant, introduced as an international investor and an old friend of the Cole family.
Sarah nearly dropped the picture.
“David wasn’t inventing another person,” she whispered. “He just lied about who it was.”
Investigators reopened Elizabeth’s case.
Travel records showed that Theodore Grant had entered the country nine days before Sarah’s crash.
He stayed at a hotel paid for by a company controlled by Margaret.
Security footage from the Cole mansion showed him meeting privately with David in the garage.
Carlos identified him as the man who delivered the tool case.
The conspiracy was larger than anyone had understood.
Thomas had helped sabotage Sarah’s car in exchange for a share of the stolen trust.
But Thomas had vanished again.
Police tracked him to a remote cabin outside the city.
When officers arrived, the cabin was empty.
May you like
On the table, they found photographs of Sarah, Emma and William.
The most recent photograph had been taken that morning.
