Chapter 21 - A Wax Sealed Parcel Found At The Estate Gatehouse
On a chilly autumn evening in late October, as I walked down the driveway to check the mail, I noticed a wooden box resting on the stone gate pillar. There were no delivery stamps, only a red wax seal featuring an unfamiliar family crest stamped into the top.
I brought the box into my study, using a letter opener to break the seal and open the heavy wooden lid. Inside rested a vintage silver compass, an old photograph of my late wife, and an unrecorded birth certificate dated twenty years ago.
Attached to the certificate was a handwritten note written in dark red ink that made my heart stop beating:
May you like
“Vanessa wasn't the only one sent to your family, Brandon. Your late wife didn't die of natural causes... and her sister is coming to Austin.”
I slowly raised my eyes toward the dark, foggy hill country highway as a single pair of headlights turned toward our gate...
