Chapter 4 - The Study Door Was Locked
Most guests left within an hour.
Ethan stayed with Margaret and Lily.
The study door was locked.
Richard stood in front of it.
“You’re not going in.”
Ethan folded his arms.
“Move.”
“It’s my house.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. The house belongs to the family trust.”
Richard’s eyes flashed.
“I control that trust.”
“You administer it.”
The difference mattered.
Lily appeared at the end of the hall holding a small brass key.
Margaret stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Grandma gave it to me before dinner.”
Celeste looked furious.
“You gave a child the study key?”
Margaret answered, “I gave her something you couldn’t take from me.”
Ethan unlocked the door.
The study smelled like cedar and old paper.
Nothing looked disturbed except one photograph turned facedown on a shelf.
Ethan lifted it.
His father David stood beside a much younger Richard.
Between them was Celeste.
Pregnant.
Ethan stared.
“Why have I never seen this?”
Richard looked away.
Celeste whispered, “Put it down.”
Margaret’s voice came from behind Ethan.
“That baby is why your father died.”
May you like
Nobody moved.
And for the first time that night, Celeste looked more devastated than angry.
