The Box in the Attic
Chapter 09 - The Box in the Attic
Michael's message made no sense.
Jonathan had never had a daughter besides Emily.
Then Lily remembered something.
Her mother once mentioned a box hidden in Jonathan's attic.
"She said Grandma made her promise never to open it."
Jonathan's wife, Margaret, had died twelve years earlier.
Jonathan climbed into the attic that evening.
Behind old Christmas decorations, he found a blue wooden box.
Inside were letters.
Dozens of them.
They were written by Margaret.
The first began thirty-nine years earlier.
Jonathan read until his hands shook.
Before Emily was born, Margaret had suffered a pregnancy she told Jonathan ended in miscarriage.
It hadn't.
She had given birth to a daughter.
Margaret's younger sister, unable to have children, secretly adopted the baby.
Jonathan had never known.
Emily had grown up with a biological sister living only fifty miles away.
Her name was Claire Bennett.
Michael had somehow discovered it.
But why?
Jonathan searched the remaining documents.
Then he found the answer.
Margaret's sister had died five years earlier.
Claire inherited a substantial trust.
A trust originally created by Jonathan's father.
If Claire died without children, part of the estate would pass to Emily.
And after Emily's death, to Lily and Noah.
Michael hadn't just been stealing from small accounts.
He had been searching for access to a much larger inheritance.
Jonathan contacted Claire.
She answered on the third ring.
When he told her who he was, she became silent.
"I've been waiting for this call for thirty years."
Jonathan nearly dropped the phone.
"You knew?"
"My mother told me before she died."
"Why didn't you contact us?"
"Because Margaret asked me not to."
Jonathan felt anger rising.
Then Claire said something else.
"Michael contacted me six months ago."
Jonathan froze.
"What did he want?"
"He said Emily was mentally ill."
May you like
Claire's voice tightened.
"He wanted me to sign papers giving him control of the family trust."
