Chapter 7 - The Rose Planted for Paige
Tabitha reached the garden first.
She grabbed the pruning shears from the stone border and began cutting through the oldest rose bush.
White blossoms fell around her.
“Stop!” Paige shouted.
Tabitha hacked at another branch.
“This house belongs to us!”
Paige seized the gardening rake and knocked the shears from Tabitha’s hand.
The tool spun harmlessly across the path.
Tabitha turned on her.
“You always got everything.”
Paige stared at her.
“What did I get?”
“His love. His name. His house.”
“He was my father.”
“And Calvin was your husband.”
Paige finally understood the hatred beneath everything.
Tabitha had not simply wanted money.
She wanted Paige’s life.
Her husband.
Her home.
Her father’s approval.
Even the roses.
Tabitha dropped to her knees and clawed at the soil beneath the oldest bush.
Calvin arrived behind her.
“Find it.”
Kyle blocked the path.
Police sirens sounded beyond the gate.
He had called them while everyone argued upstairs.
Calvin looked toward the driveway.
Then toward Tabitha.
“Get the document.”
Paige knelt beside the bush.
Not to help Tabitha.
To watch where she dug.
Her father had taught Paige how to hide bulbs beneath protective wire so animals could not disturb them.
She saw the edge of that wire now.
Tabitha did not.
Her fingers scraped the wrong side of the root ball.
Paige reached beneath a flat stone.
Her hand closed around a small waterproof metal tube.
Calvin saw it.
He lunged.
Kyle tackled him onto the grass.
The two men struggled beside the hedge.
Tabitha grabbed Paige’s hair.
Paige twisted, caught her wrist and forced her back.
The fight ended when two officers entered through the garden arch with weapons lowered but ready.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Everyone froze.
Paige remained on one knee, holding the metal tube against her chest.
The same place where Tabitha had kicked her minutes earlier.
An officer took the tube and documented it before opening it.
Inside was a signed will.
A letter.
And a memory card.
Calvin stopped struggling.
Tabitha stared at the card.
May you like
Her expression told Paige it was the thing she feared most.
👉 The will decided who inherited the estate—but the memory card would decide whether Arthur’s death had been murder.
