Chapter 4 - SECRETS BENEATH THE FLOORBOARDS
Late August brought a suffocating heat and a sudden, violent summer storm. The wind howled off the lake, whipping the water into whitecaps. While searching for extra storm shutters in the attic, I stumbled upon a locked cedar box Earl had tucked beneath the floorboards. Inside were his old leather-bound journals.
Sitting on the dusty floor, I read through decades of his thoughts. The final entry, dated a month before he passed, stopped my breath. Earl wrote about Tyler, about the boy's gentle spirit, and about his fear that the modern world would harden him. “Leave the Cove entirely in your name, Maggie,” Earl’s sprawling handwriting read. “Make them earn the peace this place offers. Don’t let it become just another asset to be sold when things get tough. Keep it sacred.”
A sharp knock at the front door pulled me from the past. When I opened it, the wind drove the rain sideways into the hall. Standing on the porch, completely soaked, with no makeup, no designer coat, and her car stuck in the mud a mile down the private road, was Vanessa. She was shivering, clutching a bundle of legal documents in her bare hands, her pride completely washed away.
