I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Manipulated her into doing what?”
“Changing her will.”
I froze.
“I didn’t even know Valerie changed her will.”
Then another thought hit me.
“Did she leave me something?”
“I don’t know.”
After we hung up, I sat there staring at the wall.
The affair had been devastating.
But somehow, this hurt almost as much.
I had cared for Valerie because I loved her.
And now Zion and Nadia were turning those final months into evidence that I had been using a dying woman for money.
People who had hugged me at Valerie’s funeral stopped calling.
One relative actually asked me whether I had pressured Valerie to change her will.
Zion and Nadia hadn’t only betrayed me.
They were rewriting the story so they could become the victims.
Three days after my cousin called, someone started pounding on my front door.
It was Zion.
The second I opened it, he pushed past me.
“You knew.”
I stepped back.
“What are you talking about?”
“You knew from the beginning my mother was going to do this.”
“Do what?”
“The house.”
He stared at me.
“She left you the house.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
“What?”
“Don’t pretend you’re shocked.”
Then something changed in his expression.
“You know what? Forget the house. This isn’t even about that.”
I stared at him.
“You and my mother were hiding something from me.”
“What?”
“I know she left something inside that house for you.”
He pointed at me.
“Where is it?”
That was the first moment I realized Zion wasn’t simply angry.
He was afraid.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
His jaw tightened.
“Why do you even care?” I asked.
Then the answer came to me.
“You’ve been looking for it.”
He said nothing.
“You’ve already been inside Valerie’s house.”
“I still have a key.”
“That doesn’t mean you have the right to search through it.”
“If I’d won the challenge to her will, it would have been my property.”
I stared at him.
“You contested her will?”
“For months.”
“And you lost?”
His face twisted with anger.
“There. That attitude. That’s how I know you planned all of this.”
“That’s enough.”
I pointed toward the door.
“Get out.”
He glared at me.
“This isn’t over.”
Then he left.
And in less than ten minutes, I had discovered two things.
Valerie had left me her house.
And somewhere inside it, she had hidden something Zion desperately wanted to find.
A week later, Valerie’s attorney called me.
He confirmed that the house was mine.
Then he showed me another section of the will.
“There’s something Valerie specifically asked me to point out.”
Below the provision giving me the house, Valerie had written:
“I have also left something in my home for her. I hope I am mistaken, but after recent conversations, I believe she may need it one day.”
I read the sentence twice.
Recent conversations.
Suddenly Zion’s panic made much more sense.
Whatever Valerie had hidden wasn’t simply jewelry or a sentimental keepsake.
It was something she believed I might need.
But why?
And why was Zion so desperate to find it first?
When I finally unlocked Valerie’s house, I understood exactly how desperate he had been.
The place looked like someone had searched every inch of it.
Cabinet doors were open.
Drawers had been emptied.
Closet boxes were scattered across bedroom floors.
Personal belongings had been tossed everywhere.
It felt like a violation.
I started putting things back.
Then I caught the faint scent of Valerie’s lavender hand cream.
I had to sit down.
Zion had torn apart his dying mother’s home searching for whatever she had left me.
But as I looked around, something stood out.
The sunroom was almost untouched.
That was where Valerie and I had spent so much time together.
So I went there first.
I sat at the little table where we used to drink tea.
For a few minutes, I could almost hear her complaining that I had made it too strong.
Without thinking, I ran my hand beneath the edge of the table.
My fingers touched something.
Tape.
I bent down.
There was an envelope fixed to the underside.
My name was written across it in Valerie’s handwriting.
Marla.
My heart started pounding.
This was what Zion had been searching for.
He had torn apart every room he believed mattered.
But Valerie had hidden the envelope in the one place she knew I would eventually sit.
I carefully opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Dear Marla,
If you are reading this, then this letter reached exactly the person I wanted it to reach.
There are several things I need to make clear in my own words.
My breath caught as I continued.
Valerie wrote that she had learned about Zion and Nadia’s relationship from Zion himself.
