Chapter 31 - THE EMPTY BOX
The gunshot was still echoing through the house when I realized Noah was gone.
“Noah!”
I ran toward the staircase.
Julian grabbed my arm.
“Emily, wait!”
I pulled away.
“That was my son!”
We searched the room.
Nothing.
Noah.
My mother.
Arthur.
All gone.
Only the empty brown box remained on the floor.
Julian picked it up.
There was blood on the edge.
I froze.
“Is that Noah's?”
“No.”
He touched it carefully.
“It isn't fresh.”
Then I noticed something beneath the box.
A small piece of paper.
I picked it up.
Three words were written in my grandfather's handwriting.
LOOK UNDER HOME.
I stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
Julian looked around the room.
“Maybe this house.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“My grandfather didn't mean the house.”
“Then what?”
I remembered something.
When I was a child, my grandfather had always called one particular place home.
The old family estate.
The place where I had grown up.
The place that had been demolished years ago.
I looked at Julian.
“The old house.”
His face changed.
“Emily…”
“What?”
“That property was destroyed fifteen years ago.”
“Was it?”
He stared at me.
“Yes.”
I looked at the empty box.
“Then why would my grandfather tell us to look under it?”
May you like
Julian grabbed his keys.
“Let's find out.”
