Chapter 5 - Denise Finally Reveals Laura’s Warning
Richard stopped the video.
He looked at Denise.
She was crying.
“You knew?”
Denise shook her head.
“Not this.”
“But you knew something.”
She sat down.
Three days before Laura died, she had called Denise into the kitchen.
Laura seemed frightened.
She asked Denise whether Rebecca had been in the house.
At the time, Rebecca was Laura’s cousin.
She visited often.
Richard had known her for years.
Denise told Laura yes.
Rebecca had stopped by twice that week.
Laura asked one more question.
“Did she go upstairs?”
Denise had said she did not know.
Then Laura gave Denise an envelope.
“What envelope?” Richard asked.
Denise looked ashamed.
“She told me to keep it unless something happened.”
Richard’s anger rose.
“Something did happen.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you give it to me?”
“Because after Laura died, it disappeared.”
Richard stared.
“From where?”
“My room.”
Denise had hidden it beneath a drawer.
The morning after Laura’s funeral, it was gone.
She suspected someone in the house.
But she had no proof.
Rebecca later became closer to Richard.
Two years after Laura’s death, they became engaged.
Denise hated it.
But Richard had been lonely.
Ethan needed stability.
Or so he had believed.
Ethan tugged Denise’s sleeve.
“What was in Mommy’s envelope?”
Denise’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know, sweetheart.”
Then Richard remembered the broken vase downstairs.
Laura had bought it in Italy.
She once joked that it was too ugly to steal.
Richard’s expression changed.
“Denise.”
She looked at him.
“The vase.”
They ran downstairs.
Porcelain still covered the foyer.
Richard knelt among the fragments.
Inside the broken base was something that had not shattered.
A small sealed plastic packet.
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Rebecca had not thrown the vase because she was angry.
She had thrown it because she knew something was hidden inside.
