Chapter 6 - Someone At My Window
I spent that night at Tessa's place.
I hated leaving my apartment, but I hated the thought of pretending the messages were harmless even more.
We reported them, documented the timestamps, and asked the building manager to preserve security footage.
A camera near the courtyard showed a woman in a baseball cap lingering outside my window.
It didn't show her face clearly enough for identification.
When I called Dad, he sounded frightened.
"Maria knows where you live," I told him.
"She said she wanted to talk."
"Did you give her my address?"
Another silence.
"I told her I was visiting you."
I shut my eyes.
"Of course you did."
"I didn't know she'd do this."
That excuse was beginning to sound like his life's motto.
I told him not to contact me unless it concerned the documents or his immediate safety.
Then I hung up.
The following afternoon, June and I began cataloging the storage boxes with Daniel's paralegal, Leah.
We photographed every label and kept a record of where each item came from.
Deep in a box marked TAX RECEIPTS, I found a folder of correspondence between Mom and the bookkeeping firm.
The letters showed Maria had been questioned about several payments before Mom died.
One had funded something called a youth scholarship expense.
The beneficiary listed in the ledger wasn't a school.
It was a private account controlled by Maria for Hazel.
Hazel had been a child at the time, and the account alone did not prove she knew what was happening.
But it explained Mom's handwritten note beside the suspicious entry.
The more I read, the colder I became.
That evening, Maria called me directly.
Her voice was silky, almost affectionate.
"Zoe, sweetheart, you're getting yourself confused by paperwork you don't understand."
"Then you won't mind explaining it to the attorney."
Her tone sharpened.
"You've always been ungrateful."
"I learned from the best."
A pause followed.
Then she whispered, "Ask your father what he received when your mother died."
May you like
The line went dead.
