Then she heard her mother’s car pull into the driveway.
And Emma realized—
the envelope was still in Laura’s coat.
Laura stepped through the door with her usual tired smile, but Emma’s worry sharpened instantly. She rushed forward, grabbed her mother’s hand, and whispered urgently, “Mom, I need to talk to you.”
Laura knelt down. “Hey, what’s going on? Do you still feel sick?”
“No,” Emma said, glancing toward the coat. “Something happened. Aunt Caroline came here. She had a key. And… and she put something in your pocket.”
Laura’s brows knit together. “Caroline was here? She doesn’t have a key to this house.”
But Emma insisted, voice shaking. “She slipped an envelope into your coat.”
Confused and uneasy, Laura walked to the coat rack and reached into the pocket. Her fingers froze around the envelope. Slowly, she pulled it out. It was plain, unmarked, sealed tightly. She opened it—and her breath stopped.
Inside were prints of bank statements, transfers, cash withdrawals Laura had never seen before—transactions under her name totaling tens of thousands of dollars. And at the bottom, a printed police report template with Laura listed as the primary suspect.
Emma watched her mother’s face shift from confusion to horror.
“This… this looks like evidence,” Laura whispered. “Evidence of fraud. But I didn’t do any of this.”
Emma remembered the chilling words: Tonight she can call the police. That fool won’t suspect a thing.
“Mom,” she said quietly, “I think Aunt Caroline wants to blame you. I think she’s setting you up.”
Laura’s hands trembled as she sifted through the papers. “Why would she do this? We don’t even argue. We… we’ve always been close.”
