I stared at him.
“He believed Ryan had been searching through his office.
Robert gave me the folder and instructed me to hide a duplicate somewhere Ryan would never think to look until after the funeral.
He chose the temporary flower stand because he knew it would be placed beside his grave during the service.”
“And the messages?”
“Scheduled instructions.
Your father gave written authorization for me to use his phone after his death if certain conditions occurred.”
“What conditions?”
Daniel hesitated.
“If Ryan made an unusual move immediately after Robert died.
Asked about the will.
Searched the house.
Contacted financial institutions.”
My pulse quickened.
“Did he?”
“Yesterday afternoon, before the funeral, Ryan called my office.”
I stared at him.
“He asked when the will would be read.”
Daniel nodded.
“He also asked whether spouses automatically gained an interest in inherited real estate.”
On the day I buried my father.
Ryan had been asking how much of Dad’s property he could reach.
I looked toward the dark window.
“And tonight he came here.”
“Yes.”
“How would he know?”
“That concerns me.”
Daniel packed the papers back into the folder.
“Your father gave you one advantage, Emily.
Ryan believes you know nothing.”
I remembered the way my husband spoke to me at the funeral.
Dismissive.
Comfortable.
Certain.
He thought grief had made me weak.
“What happens now?”
“We allow him to continue believing that.”
By dawn, I was back at Dad’s house.
The black folder was no longer with me.
Daniel had taken the original evidence to a secure location and given me only my father’s handwritten note.
I hid it inside an old cookbook Ryan had never opened in twelve years.
At 7:14 a.m., my husband finally called.
I let the phone ring four times.
“Where were you last night?” he demanded.
No hello.
No apology.
No question about whether I had slept after burying my father.
“I was at Dad’s house.”
“All night?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“Your car wasn’t there around three.”
That told me everything.
I sat at my father’s kitchen table and looked at the empty chair across from me.
“Why were you checking?”
Ryan recovered quickly.
