Chapter 4 - Grandma’s Secret Key
I managed forty-three minutes of broken sleep in a plastic hospital chair before an unknown number flashed across my phone screen at 6:30 AM.
I answered on the second ring. It was Kyle.
He didn't bother pretending to be a concerned husband. His voice was dripping with venom and casual entitlement. He told me Savannah was hysterical, warned me to stay out of family business, and stated flatly that there were legal documents involved that did not belong to my department.
When I informed him in a flat, monotone deadpan that Khloe was my blood and therefore very much my business, Kyle paused. A dark, threatening edge crept into his tone.
“Tell the kid to give it back,” he snarled.
Then he disconnected.
I sat up straight in the dark hospital room, my mind racing. Give what back?
I looked over at Khloe, who had finally fallen into a restless sleep on the narrow hospital cot. Her small fist was still locked tightly around Grandma Eileen’s silver locket. Savannah had mentioned weeks ago that Patricia had kept the locket locked inside her antique vanity after Grandma died, claiming the old woman had left it specifically to her as the eldest daughter.
When the nurses stepped out to change shift rotations, I gently pried Khloe’s fingers open just enough to examine the antique jewelry. I pressed my thumbnail against the decorative hinge. With a faint click, a hidden compartment popped open.
Inside lay a folded, yellowed scrap of notebook paper wrapped tightly around a tiny brass skeleton key stamped with the words First Lake Bank and the serial number 214.
May you like
Grandma Eileen’s spidery, unmistakable handwriting filled the paper in two short lines: For Maddie or Savannah. Not Patricia. If she ever does to your girls what she did to mine, open Box 214.
Even Deborah Langley, standing by the doorway, lost her professional composure for half a second. Whatever dark secrets our grandmother had carried to her grave, she had fully expected Patricia to lie, steal, and manipulate the moment she was gone.
