Chapter 19 - The Unopened Box
Two years after the trial, a heavy cardboard box arrived at my doorstep via certified mail from the Department of Corrections.
It contained the remaining personal effects found in Evelyn Vance's prison cell following her sudden passing from cardiac arrest.
Among the old letters, reading glasses, and religious pamphlets was a small, locked metal journal bound in faded black leather.
I sat at my kitchen island with a cup of hot tea, using a small screwdriver to pop the flimsy lock open.
As I turned the yellowed pages, my eyes caught a entry dated six months before David and I were even married.
David brought his new girlfriend, Hannah, to dinner tonight, Evelyn had written in her sharp, slanted handwriting.
She is too independent, too smart, and her father has too much money.
If David marries her, I will never be able to control his assets.
I must make sure that when the time comes, her name is erased from everything he owns... no matter what it takes.
My heart pounded as I realized that her conspiracy hadn't started three months before the break-in.
It had been set in motion twelve years ago before I had even said 'I do' at the altar.
May you like
I turned to the final page of the journal, dated just three days before her death inside the prison infirmary.
Her last written words made the cold hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up on end.
