PART 6

I stood completely still.

For some reason, I was afraid to turn it.

I don’t know why.

Maybe because opening it meant accepting that Ernest had kept something from us.

Maybe because I was afraid of what I might find.

I inserted the key.

It turned easily.

Click.

The drawer opened.

Inside was a single envelope.

My name was written on it.

MARIA

My breath caught.

I pulled it out.

The envelope was thick.

There was another note on the front.

“Read this alone.”

I sat down on the basement floor.

My hands were shaking as I opened it.

Inside was a letter.

This one was much longer.

And the first sentence made my heart stop.

“Maria, if you are reading this, then I am already gone, and the others are probably asking questions about what I left behind.”

I pressed my hand against my mouth.

I kept reading.

“I know my children will think you received nothing from me because you were only my daughter-in-law.”

My eyes filled with tears.

“But you were the only child I had left.”

I couldn’t continue.

I lowered the letter.

For several seconds, I simply cried.

Then I forced myself to read on.

Ernest explained that years earlier, after his wife died, he had made a decision.

He knew he wasn’t wealthy.

He knew his children expected the farm to be divided someday.

But there was something they didn’t know.

Something he had hidden for nearly twenty years.

He had sold a small parcel of land that nobody used.

The money had not been spent.

Instead, he had invested it.

Quietly.

Carefully.

He had opened an account in a different state.

And over the years, he had added to it.

Small amounts.

Farm payments.

Crop profits.

Money from equipment he sold.

Even checks from an old mineral rights agreement that had suddenly become valuable.

I read the same paragraph three times.

Then I saw the amount.

My eyes widened.

I thought I had misread it.

I brought the letter closer to the light.

$486,700.

Nearly half a million dollars.

My hands went numb.

“No…”

I whispered.

“That can’t be right.”

CONTINUE READING PART7…