Chapter 5 - THE GOLD POCKET WATCH
“Someone came into the house to silence them?” I repeated, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.
I stared at the gold pocket watch, then at the crayon drawing of the twin sister I never knew existed. My mother, Ellen, had lived her entire life carrying the ghost of a twin she never spoke of.
“Thomas,” I said, pointing a shaking finger at the watch. “Walter’s brother. Was Thomas in the house?”
Margaret nodded slowly, sinking onto one of the kitchen barstools. She looked incredibly frail, as if the secret had been the only thing keeping her spine straight all these years.
“Walter didn’t owe money to random loan sharks,” Margaret confessed, staring at her hands. “He owed money to his own brother. Thomas was a monster. He ran a vicious underground gambling ring in the city. He’s the one who held our mortgage. He’s the one who came to the house that night to collect.”
Answer one: Arthur didn’t blackmail Walter. Thomas did. Arthur’s involvement was a lie Margaret fabricated to protect her family from the shame of Walter’s criminal connections.
“Thomas told Walter he had one hour to pack his bags and leave town, or he would kill all of us,” Margaret said, her voice hollow. “Walter left to try and find the police. He thought if he left the property, Thomas would follow him. But Thomas didn’t follow him. Thomas walked into the house.”
“He came for the deed,” I guessed.
“He came for collateral,” Margaret corrected, looking up at me with tears in her sharp eyes. “He came to take one of the girls. To ensure Walter paid him back.”
A wave of pure nausea washed over me. Thomas wasn’t just a loan shark; he was a predator.
“Ellen hid under her bed,” Margaret continued. “But Annie… Annie didn’t hide. I told you, Sarah, that child was not right in the head. When Thomas grabbed her by the arm in the sunroom, Annie didn’t scream. She reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his silver lighter, and threw it into the kerosene space heater.”
My jaw dropped. The crude child’s drawing made terrifying sense now.
Annie made the fire.
“The heater exploded,” Margaret whispered, pulling her sleeve up again to reveal the horrific burn scar on her arm. “I ran into the room. Thomas was screaming. His clothes were on fire. The ceiling was coming down. I grabbed Annie and tried to pull her out, but Thomas… he grabbed her ankle. He wouldn’t let her go.”
Margaret closed her eyes, tears finally spilling over her lashes.
“I had to choose, Sarah. The roof was collapsing. I could hear Ellen screaming from the hallway. I couldn’t save them both. I broke Thomas’s grip, and I dragged Annie out into the yard. Thomas burned alive in that sunroom.”
Open two: If Margaret saved Annie, where was she? Why did Margaret say earlier that Annie didn't die in the fire, but my mother never mentioned her?
Reversal: Margaret looked at the scorched silver bluebird charm hanging around my neck.
“The bone you found twenty years ago didn’t belong to Annie,” Margaret said softly. “It belonged to Thomas. I pulled his pocket watch from the ashes the next morning to hide the evidence that he was ever there. I told the police he never showed up.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police the truth?” I asked, horrified. “It was self-defense! Annie was a child defending herself!”
“Because of what Annie did next,” Margaret said.
She stood up and walked over to a heavy oak hutch in the corner of the kitchen. She unlocked the bottom drawer and pulled out a small, leather-bound diary. It was severely charred around the edges.
“I dragged Annie into the front yard,” Margaret said, handing me the diary. “Ellen ran out of the front door a second later. But Annie didn’t cry. She didn’t scream.”
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Margaret’s voice dropped to an absolute, terrified whisper.
Cliffhanger: “Annie stood in the grass, watching the man burn to death in our house, and she smiled. And then, she looked at Ellen, and she said, ‘You’re next.’”
