Part 2
“Attorney Brenda, it’s me,” I said the moment she picked up the call. “Misty just came here to threaten me.”
Her professional tone shifted instantly to one of deep concern.
“What exactly did she say to you, Cassandra?”
“She said exactly what we were afraid of, so I need to know if you can come over right now.”
“I am on my way,” she replied firmly, “and you shouldn’t worry because your father thought much further ahead than any of them.”
After I hung up, I noticed something caught under the leaves of a rosebush. It was a small envelope, damp with the morning dew and covered in my father’s unmistakable handwriting.
It was addressed directly to me, and I picked it up with trembling hands. I felt as if the paper weighed more than it should, as if it held a final, decisive move in a game I didn’t know we were playing.
Attorney Brenda arrived twenty minutes later carrying her briefcase and a bottle of wine. She had been my father’s legal counsel for decades, but she was also a dear friend who had known me since I was a child.
We locked ourselves in the study, which still smelled of the mild tobacco and old wood that always reminded me of my father. I sat in his large leather armchair while still clutching the unopened envelope in my hand.
“You didn’t want to open that alone, did you?” Brenda asked gently.
I shook my head because I was terrified of what Misty had hinted about my brother Jesse.
“Your father left very specific instructions, and some things were meant to be discovered only at the right time.”
I looked up at her with confusion.
