Chapter 10 - THE SAFE AND THE SECRET
I waited in my car down the street, watching the clock tick slowly by. Every minute felt like an hour.
When the time came, I walked back to the house through the garden. Mark was waiting by the back door. He opened it quietly and stepped aside.
“She will be gone for another forty-five minutes,” he whispered. “We must hurry.”
We walked silently through the house to Evelyn’s study. It was a room I had rarely entered—she always kept it locked, calling it her private sanctuary.
Mark closed the door behind us and walked to the bookshelf against the far wall. He reached out and pulled a leather-bound volume from the shelf.
The entire section swung open, revealing a heavy iron safe built into the wall.
I stared at it.
Mark stepped forward. He took a breath, then began turning the dial. Left. Right. Left. Right.
The final click sounded loud in the silence.
He gripped the handle and pulled. The door swung open.
Inside, stacked neatly on shelves, were rows of folders. Bound in black leather. Labeled with dates and names.
Mark reached in and pulled out the thickest folder—the one sitting at the very back. He placed it on the desk and opened it.
My breath caught.
Documents. Photographs. Bank records. Certified copies of signatures. Everything.
Evelyn had kept absolute proof of every crime she had ever committed.
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“Look,” Mark said, his voice trembling.
He pointed to a document dated twenty-four years ago. It was the legal agreement stripping Clara of all her rights—her signature had been forged, exactly the way Evelyn had forged mine. Beside it was a letter from Evelyn threatening to expose
