True Heiress Never Lies! novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Note

Peter held the paper out with both hands.

It was gray with age, folded into a hard little square, and the creases had gone soft and white.

"Sonia gave it to me at the place," he said. "I was supposed to give it only to you."

"To me?" my father said.

"I put it in my shoe. Then I put it in a shoebox under my bed. I kept it for a long time."

"Peter," Estelle said, in a bright voice. "Honey, give that to Mommy."

"No."

He had never said that word to her before.

The whole table turned to look at him.

He was nine years old, with a gap in his smile, and he held the note against his chest.

My father took it from him very gently.

He unfolded it, one crease at a time.

The pencil had faded, but the letters were still sharp, in my handwriting from a year and a half before.

He read it standing up in front of his guests.

I watched his lips move.

His face did something I had never seen a face do.

It went slack, and then every muscle in it pulled tight.

"This is from April," he said.

"She wrote it last week," Estelle said. "Gordon, she's been planning this. She had the boy hold it. It's a trick."

"It's gray with dirt."

"She rubbed it on the floor."

"It's folded so many times that it's cracked," my father said. "Look at it."

Peter said, "It was in my shoebox. There's dust on the box. Dad, I swear. I can show you."

"Don't swear at the table," Estelle said.

"I'm not swearing! It's true!"

My father looked at me.

"Was this the day we visited?"

"Yes."

"You slipped Peter this under the table."

"I'm sorry I put it on him," I said. "I didn't have anyone else."

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