Chapter 10 - The Unopened Box in the AtticThat night, while Clara and Lily were asleep upstairs, I went up to the dark, dusty attic to clear out the last remaining storage boxes before the real estate agents arrived the next morning.
Most of it was old baby clothes, broken toys, and college textbooks.
As I reached into the furthest, darkest corner behind the chimney stack, my hand brushed against a heavy, leather-bound box that didn't belong to either of us. It was stamped with an old monogram: M.W.
Marlene’s childhood trunk.
I hesitated, my heart giving a strange, uneasy thud against my ribs. I should have left it for the police evidence team. I should have walked away. But an invisible pull—some dark curiosity born from the nightmare we had just survived—forced me to flip the brass latch.
The lid rose with a faint creek.
Inside, sitting right on top of a stack of old family photo albums, was a single, sealed manila envelope labeled in Marlene’s unmistakable handwriting:
TO ETHAN: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, IT MEANS YOU FOUND MY MASTERPIECE TOO LATE. P.S. LOOK BEHIND THE BASEMENT WATER HEATER.
My breath caught in my throat.
Slowly, carefully, I set the envelope down, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed Detective Vance’s direct emergency line.
"Vance," her voice answered on the first ring, crisp and urgent. "What is it, Ethan? Is everything okay?"
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"Get a forensics team back to my house right now," I whispered, staring down into the open box as a cold draft swept through the attic rafters. "There's something in the basement Marlene didn't want the police to find."
The phone line went silent for three seconds before Vance replied: “Don't touch anything. I'm on my way.”
