Rebecca worried Nathan might destroy evidence.
Then, on Friday morning, Nathan returned.
He carried three cardboard boxes.
The same three boxes he had taken from Richard’s house years earlier.
He set them on Margaret’s floor.
“I should have brought these a long time ago.”
Margaret looked at him.
“What changed?”
Nathan swallowed.
“I saw your back.”
Margaret said nothing.
Nathan continued.
“I went home.”
“I looked at my sons.”
“And I realized I had spent my whole life protecting the wrong person.”
Margaret’s face softened only slightly.
Nathan opened the first box.
Inside were letters.
Receipts.
Bank records.
Photographs.
The second box held legal documents.
The third contained journals.
Richard’s journals.
Rebecca arrived that afternoon.
They spent six hours reading.
What they found was worse than expected.
Richard had planned everything.
After burning Margaret, he panicked.
Emily had seen what happened.
She screamed that she would tell the police.
