Chapter 3 - The Letter Before the Wedding
Dad opened the envelope while officers secured the house.
Inside was a handwritten letter and a small silver key.
Rachel’s handwriting trembled across the pages.
Daniel,
Wade is not marrying Diane because he loves her.
He needs access to the basement before the property transfers after the wedding.
There is evidence buried beneath the floor.
Some of it belongs to me.
Some of it belongs to your family.
Do not trust the wedding photographer.
Dad stopped reading.
He looked toward the reception room below.
A photographer had been taking pictures all evening.
Now he was gone.
Detective Sarah Mills arrived with a search team.
She examined Rachel’s injuries and ordered an ambulance.
Wade insisted the woman had broken into the house.
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“I owned this house before Diane did.”
My mother stared at her.
“You gave it to me.”
“I disappeared for six months. You had me declared dead.”
“You were missing for seven years.”
“Because Wade kept moving me.”
The room felt smaller.
Rachel explained that she and Diane were half-sisters.
Their father left the wedding house jointly to them.
Years earlier, Wade began dating Rachel.
He convinced her to sign financial documents.
When she discovered he was stealing from a family trust, he attacked her.
Diane helped him hide the scandal.
My mother shook her head.
“I thought you were dead.”
“You saw me after the attack.”
“You weren’t breathing.”
“So you buried someone else?”
Diane covered her mouth.
She had not expected Rachel to know that part.
Dad finished reading the letter.
The final paragraph named the person supposedly buried in the basement.
Lieutenant Thomas Hale.
Dad’s commanding officer.
The man who died during a classified training accident four years earlier.
Dad stared at the page.
“That’s impossible.”
Rachel pointed toward the silver key.
“Open the green medical case beneath the floor.”
Detective Mills ordered officers downstairs.
May you like
Before they reached the basement, one of the guests screamed.
The wedding photographer was climbing out a rear window with a black camera bag.
