Chapter 2 - The Room Above the Balcony
The upstairs room had been Paige’s father’s private study.
Arthur Everett allowed no one inside without permission.
Not Paige.
Not Kyle.
Certainly not Calvin.
After Arthur died from what doctors called a sudden cardiac event, the study door was found locked.
The brass key normally kept on his watch chain had disappeared.
Kyle told the family not to touch anything until the estate attorney arrived.
But two days later, the attorney reported that Arthur’s latest will could not be found.
Calvin appeared the next morning with an older copy.
That version divided most of the estate between Paige and Kyle, but allowed Kyle, as executor, to sell the mansion.
Calvin claimed Kyle had already agreed to sell it to him.
Paige refused to believe her brother would do that.
Then Kyle vanished.
Now Tabitha had recognized the missing key.
Paige slid the envelope deeper beneath her apron.
Tabitha recovered quickly.
“I don’t know what you think you found.”
“You looked at the study.”
“I looked at the house.”
“You looked at one window.”
Tabitha smiled again, but her nostrils flared.
“You always imagined yourself smarter than everyone.”
“And you always panic before you lie.”
Tabitha stepped toward her.
Paige lifted one hand.
“Touch me again and I call the police.”
Tabitha glanced around the quiet garden.
“No witnesses.”
Paige looked toward the black lantern mounted beside the garden arch.
A tiny security lens was hidden beneath it.
Tabitha followed her gaze.
For the first time, she seemed uncertain.
Paige had installed the camera after someone broke into the greenhouse.
Arthur knew about it.
Calvin did not.
Neither did Tabitha.
Paige removed her phone from the gardening bucket, which had landed near the rose bed.
She opened the camera application.
The device was offline.
The wire had been cut.
Tabitha’s confidence returned.
“Looks like your father’s house is falling apart.”
Paige stared at the severed cable.
It had not been damaged by weather.
Someone had sliced it cleanly.
Then she noticed mud on Tabitha’s right heel.
Not garden soil.
Dark red dust.
The same brick dust that covered the unfinished floor inside Arthur’s locked study.
Paige looked back at Tabitha.
“You were upstairs.”
Tabitha’s jaw tightened.
Before she could respond, a black SUV turned into the driveway.
Calvin stepped out.
He was not alone.
Kyle emerged from the passenger side.
Paige’s relief lasted less than a second.
May you like
Her brother would not meet her eyes.
👉 Kyle had finally returned—but the folder under his arm suggested that he had come to help Calvin take the estate.
