“Mrs. Harris, you can’t—” Mr. Pemberton began, but his words were swallowed by a sudden, high‑pitched alarm.
Red lights flared, and the office door burst open.
Reading the Letter – The Warning
I unfolded the first page quickly, the paper rustling like a secret being breathed out.
Gerald’s words were stark, his pen moving with a purpose I had never seen in his grocery lists.
“My dearest Evelyn,” he wrote, “after Michael’s death I could not bear to watch you shoulder the world alone.”
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