Chapter 6 - The Secret Tabitha Kept
Calvin grabbed Tabitha’s arm.
“What did you leave behind?”
She tore free.
“Nothing.”
“The earring says otherwise.”
“That proves I was here. It proves nothing else.”
Paige held up the ivory fabric.
“You were beside my father when he collapsed.”
Tabitha’s eyes filled with calculation.
Then she made a choice.
She pointed at Calvin.
“He told me to change the medication.”
Calvin went still.
Kyle whispered, “There it is.”
Tabitha continued before Calvin could stop her.
“He said Arthur was confused and dangerous. He said the dosage would calm him.”
“You believed that?” Paige asked.
“I believed my husband.”
Calvin laughed bitterly.
“You weren’t my wife then.”
Tabitha’s face changed.
Paige understood.
The affair had begun before her divorce.
Possibly long before.
Calvin spoke with quiet contempt.
“She knew exactly what she was doing.”
Tabitha shouted, “You planned all of it!”
Kyle raised his phone, recording.
Neither noticed.
Tabitha said Calvin needed Arthur declared mentally incompetent so Kyle could take control of the estate.
But Arthur discovered the plan.
He changed his will.
He removed Kyle as executor until an independent attorney could review everything.
Then he hid the new document.
“Where is it?” Paige asked.
Tabitha looked at the empty safe.
“I don’t know.”
Calvin said, “She found it the night he died.”
“I found an envelope.”
“And?”
“It contained a copy. Not the signed original.”
Calvin stepped toward her.
“You told me you burned the only one.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because once you had the estate, you would leave me.”
The truth was uglier than Paige expected.
Calvin and Tabitha had plotted together.
But neither trusted the other.
Each had hidden evidence as insurance.
Kyle looked at Paige.
“Dad knew they would betray each other.”
Arthur had hidden the garden envelope where only Paige would look.
Among his roses.
Not in the office.
Not in the safe.
Somewhere connected to memory rather than money.
Paige unfolded the inner document.
It was not the will.
It was a handwritten map of the garden.
One rose bed was marked with an X.
The oldest bush.
The one planted beside Paige’s childhood window.
Tabitha saw the map.
Then she ran.
She shoved past Kyle and raced toward the stairs.
Paige followed.
Tabitha was not heading for the front door.
May you like
She was heading back to the garden.
👉 Arthur’s final will was still buried among the roses—but Tabitha knew exactly which bush to destroy first.
