The Man Who Can't Let Go novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Bottom Drawer

The townhouse was dark when they got home, and Greta was still at the hotel taking apologies.

Harvey's lease notice sat folded in Virginia's evening bag, thirty days from ending his store.

Tobias had read it in the car and said he would call the VanAlstyne Properties lawyers at dawn.

Virginia left him at the foot of the stairs with a kiss and a lie about being tired.

She waited in the blue room until the house went quiet.

At one in the morning she went down the back stairs in her socks, with Sisi's key in her fist.

Sisi was already waiting outside the study door in a bathrobe, white as paper.

"I can't go in," Sisi whispered. "I'll stand here and watch the hall."

"You don't have to do any of this."

"I do." Sisi's voice cracked. "I wore her emeralds. I'll hold the door."

The study smelled of lemon polish and old paper.

Greta's desk stood against the far wall with a lamp, a silver letter opener and a framed photograph of Tobias at ten.

Virginia knelt at the bottom drawer and turned the key.

It opened with a soft click.

The drawer was shallow and tidy.

On top lay a stack of letters bound with a rubber band.

Virginia lifted them out and read the front of the first one.

It was addressed to Tobias in her father's blocky handwriting, and the postmark was three years old.

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