She Threatened My Father’s Roses, Then His Final Letter Appeared

My phone rang while we were still in the garden. Kyle’s name lit up the screen. Tabitha’s eyes flicked to it, and that tiny movement told me she had already texted him.

Penelope nodded for me to answer on speaker.

“Paige,” Kyle said too quickly, “don’t do anything dramatic.”

I almost smiled. Apparently, everyone in my family had received the same script.

“Funny,” I said. “That’s what people keep saying right before I find paperwork.”

There was silence.

“What did Tabitha tell you?” he asked.

“She told me Calvin and she were moving in after the will reading.”

Kyle exhaled. “She shouldn’t have gone there.”

“No,” I said. “She shouldn’t have known enough to come.”

Penelope stepped closer to the phone. “Kyle, this is Penelope Hart. Be advised that the garden clause has been triggered.”

Kyle cursed under his breath.

Tabitha closed her eyes.

There it was again. Confirmation. Not surprise. Not confusion. Fear.

“Kyle,” I said, my voice quieter now, “what did you do?”

He tried to recover. “Paige, Dad wasn’t himself. Calvin had been like family. You can’t expect to keep everything just because you were the favorite.”

“The favorite?” I repeated.

I thought of the hospital chair I slept in. The bills I organized. The vomit basin I held when Dad’s medication turned on him. The nights Kyle said he was too busy, while apparently making plans with my ex-husband.

“Did you pressure him to change the will?” I asked.

“I tried to make him be fair.”

Penelope’s pen moved quickly over her notepad.

“Did Calvin offer you something?” I asked.

Kyle said nothing.

That silence answered.

Tabitha suddenly snapped, “This is not admissible.”

Penelope looked at her calmly. “You would be surprised what becomes admissible when people keep talking.”