Chapter 12 - Tabitha’s Last Bargain
Paige met Tabitha in a secured interview room.
A glass wall separated them.
Tabitha wore a plain jail uniform.
No diamonds.
No heels.
No perfect smile.
“You look pleased,” Tabitha said.
“I look free.”
Tabitha leaned closer.
“Your father knew about Calvin and me before your divorce.”
Paige remained still.
“How long?”
“Two years.”
Pain moved through Paige, but she refused to show it.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He tried.”
Tabitha said Arthur had confronted Calvin.
Calvin promised to end the affair.
Instead, he persuaded Arthur that Paige was emotionally fragile after a miscarriage and that the truth might destroy her.
Paige remembered that year.
Calvin had discouraged her from visiting her father alone.
He intercepted phone calls.
He said Arthur was becoming forgetful.
“He isolated both of us,” Paige whispered.
Tabitha smiled faintly.
“And you let him.”
Paige’s eyes hardened.
“So did you.”
Tabitha’s smile vanished.
She had believed Calvin would marry her and share the estate.
He married her.
But he never intended to share.
“What do you want?” Paige asked.
“Tell the prosecutor I helped you.”
“You kicked me into a rose bush and helped drug my father.”
“I did not know he would die.”
“You knew enough to search his office before calling an ambulance.”
Tabitha looked down.
Paige stood.
“Tell the truth because it is the truth. Not because you expect me to save you.”
As Paige reached the door, Tabitha spoke again.
“Your father left you another recording.”
Paige stopped.
“Where?”
“Calvin hid it in the old greenhouse irrigation box.”
“Why would he leave it there?”
“He didn’t. Your father did. Calvin found it but could not open the password.”
“What password?”
Tabitha looked at her.
“The name of the first rose Arthur planted for you.”
Paige knew it instantly.
Everett Dawn.
She left without making a deal.
In the greenhouse, investigators recovered a small encrypted drive.
The password worked.
Arthur appeared on screen.
He looked tired, but peaceful.
“If Paige is watching this,” he said, “then she survived the people I should have protected her from.”
May you like
Paige covered her mouth.
👉 Arthur’s final message contained no legal secret—it contained the apology Paige had waited her entire life to hear.
