"What do you want?"
Raymond gave a quiet laugh.
"I think you've been looking through things that don't belong to you."
I looked at the wooden chest on the table.
"They belonged to my wife."
He sounded irritated.
"Your wife should have stayed away from things she didn't understand."
I tightened my grip on the phone.
"Did you kill Evelyn?"
There was a pause.
Then he laughed again.
"That's a serious accusation."
"Answer me."
He ignored the question.
Instead, he mentioned Hallie.
He said I should be more concerned about the daughter I still had.
My heart began pounding.
"Don't you ever threaten my child."
His voice became colder.
"There's something inside that wooden box I need."
I looked at Marlene.
She had already started recording the call on her phone.
"What are you talking about?"
"The memory card."
I glanced at the laptop.
The recording of Evelyn was still open.
"You mean the video showing you threatening my wife?"
He went quiet.
Then he said something unexpected.
"You don't know what you're holding."
"Then tell me."
"The recording is only part of the story."
I waited.
He continued.
"Bring the card to the old North Ridge warehouse tomorrow at noon. Come alone."
"No."
"Don't make this difficult, Grant."
I felt anger rising.
"You've already made my daughter's life difficult enough."
There was a strange metallic sound in the background.
Then I heard another voice.
A woman.
"Raymond, stop. You're making things worse."
I froze.
I knew that voice.
But it wasn't Lenora.
I had heard it many times before.
"Who is that?"
Raymond didn't answer.
The woman spoke again.
"Please, Grant. Just listen."
My heart stopped.
"Patricia?"
It was Patricia Wells.
Evelyn's closest friend.
Hallie's godmother.
The woman who had helped us arrange Evelyn's funeral.
The woman who had sat beside me when I couldn't stop crying.
I couldn't understand why she was with Raymond.
"Why are you there?"
She began crying.
"I'm sorry, Grant."
I felt the room spinning.
"Why are you with him?"
She hesitated.
Then she said something that made me feel as though the floor had disappeared.
"There's something about Evelyn's death you were never supposed to discover."
Raymond shouted at her to stop.
But Patricia continued.
"The crash wasn't supposed to happen that way."
I could barely breathe.
"What are you saying?"
She was crying harder now.
"They only wanted to frighten her."
"Who?"
Before she could answer, Raymond grabbed the phone.
"Enough."
I shouted his name.
He repeated the demand about meeting him at the warehouse.
Then the call ended.
Nobody spoke.
Hallie was watching me.
"Dad, was that Aunt Patricia?"
I nodded.
Her face changed.
Patricia had always been kind to her.
She remembered Evelyn's birthday.
She sent Hallie Christmas cards.
She had attended school events after Evelyn died.
I had trusted her.
Now I didn't know what to believe.
I immediately contacted Detective Harris.
He told me not to go anywhere near the warehouse.
He also said investigators would handle any contact with Raymond.
I agreed.
We continued to Marlene's house.
It was late.
Everyone was exhausted.
Hallie went to bed with Diane.
Walter stayed in the guest room.
Marlene checked the doors.
I sat alone at her kitchen table.
It was four seventeen in the morning.
Evelyn's wooden box was in front of me.
I kept thinking about Raymond's words.
The recording is only part of the story.
I picked up the protective case that had held the first memory card.
There was a tiny scratch along one edge.
Then I noticed two handwritten words on the back.
Check second.
I turned the case over.
Second what?
I searched the wooden box again.
I checked beneath the photographs.
I lifted the tissue paper.
I unfolded the letter.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the painted snowman on the lid.
Its base wasn't sitting flat.
I pressed gently.
A small wooden panel shifted.
I stopped breathing.
There was another compartment underneath.
And inside it was a second memory card.
My hands began trembling.
I connected it to my laptop.
Three files appeared.
The first was called Insurance Records.
The second was Raymond — Confession.
The third had a message that made me sit upright.
Grant Must See This First.
I opened it.
Evelyn appeared on the screen.
She was sitting in our old kitchen.
She wore the blue sweater I'd given her for Christmas.
Her eyes looked tired.
I covered my mouth.
I hadn't heard her voice in five years.
"Grant, if you're watching this, something has happened to me."
I started crying.
She took a breath.
Then she spoke about how much she loved me.
She said she knew I trusted the people around us.
That trust had always been one of the things she loved about me.
Then her expression changed.
She said she'd discovered something terrible.
She needed me to protect Hallie.
I leaned closer.
Evelyn explained that Raymond Pierce had been using stolen identities and false insurance policies.
But he wasn't working alone.
The person helping him knew our family.
I looked toward the staircase.
Hallie was asleep upstairs.
Evelyn continued.
She said the money in Hallie's trust wasn't the only thing they wanted.
They were trying to hide something that had happened years before Hallie was born.
Then she mentioned a secret about Raymond.
A secret that could destroy everything he had built.
She looked directly into the camera.
"The person who can prove it is still alive."
I leaned closer.
Then she said a name.
Rebecca.
My wife explained that Rebecca was her sister.
I stared at the screen.
Evelyn had never told me she had a sister.
At least, I had never known about one.
She warned that if Raymond found Rebecca first, the woman might disappear.
The recording ended.
I sat completely still.
Evelyn had hidden an entire part of her life from me.
And somebody had been searching for the same person.
I looked through the wooden compartment again.
There was something taped to the inside.
A faded photograph.
Two young women stood outside a hospital.
One was Evelyn.
The other had familiar eyes.
I brought the picture closer.
There was a date written on the back.
Then Evelyn's handwriting.
Rebecca.
My sister.
Please forgive me.
I read it again.
Then my phone vibrated.
It was Detective Harris.
He had sent a message.
They had identified a woman connected to Raymond's old records.
Her name was Rebecca.
I stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
The investigators believed she might have contacted Hallie.
Then came the final sentence.
Rebecca had officially been reported dead nineteen years earlier.
I looked back at the photograph.
The woman beside Evelyn looked alive.
Very much alive.
I thought about the unknown person who had slipped that warning beneath the camper door.
I thought about the person who had taken a photograph of our house.
I thought about Patricia's voice on Raymond's telephone.
And I began to wonder whether Rebecca was the person who had been trying to protect us all along.
I didn't know where she was.
I didn't know why Evelyn had kept her existence secret.
But I knew one thing.
The mystery surrounding my first wife's death had started long before I met Lenora.
And Hallie's sixteenth birthday had brought all of it into the open.
I closed the laptop.
Then I carefully returned the second memory card to its protective case.
I wasn't going to lose another piece of Evelyn's story.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: The Woman My First Wife Had Hidden From Everyone Was Connected to the Accident, and the Police Finally Found Her
I Thought I Was Bringing My Daughter the Best Birthday Surprise, Until I Opened the Door to the Bedroom That No Longer Belonged to Her
Part 8 of 20
