Page 50 of Maddening Fixation

“Where?”

With one violent sweep of my arm, I sent crystal glasses, silver platters, candles, and porcelain plates crashing onto the marble floor.

The deafening sound echoed through the mansion.

No one moved.

My eyes bored into Grandfather Flynn.

If anyone knew...

It would be him.

He had controlled every funeral. Every burial. Every family secret.

The old man slowly straightened in his chair, trying to reclaim a dignity that fear had already stolen.

His hands trembled despite his efforts to hide them.

“No one will tell ye.”

His voice was steady...

His fists were not.

“The look in yer eyes tells me ye’ll kill us regardless.”

He swallowed.

“So why should anyone speak?”

He spoke again in a rush, grasping at the first thing that might keep himself alive.

“There’s something you need to know.”

His voice trembled despite his effort to steady it.

“Your grandmother left a will for you.”

He licked his dry lips.

“She hid it where no one would ever think to look.”

His breathing grew uneven.

“It’s sealed inside the false bottom of the old cedar trunk in her private dressing room.”

He raised both hands slightly, as though afraid the slightest movement might get him killed.

“We couldn’t retrieve it.”

“She locked it away behind a passcode,” he said quickly, the words tumbling over one another in his desperation. “None of us could open it. We tried. She made sure of that.”

He swallowed hard.

“But... perhaps you can.”

His hopeful gaze lingered on me as though that single possibility might earn him another minute of life.