And knew.
Gone.
Whoever came tonight wasn’t after the letters.
They were after Dad’s evidence.
Lightning exploded outside.
Thunder shook the house hard enough to rattle the closet door.
And suddenly Hersh went still beside me.
Not normal still.
The dangerous kind.
“What?” Wolf asked immediately.
Hersh’s eyes moved slowly toward the hallway.
“He wasn’t searching.”
Every instinct inside me tightened instantly.
“What do you mean?” Ava asked.
Hersh walked toward the ripped-up floorboards slowly.
Studying them.
Then the closet.
Then the scattered letters.
“He knew exactly where the box was.”
The room went dead silent.
Because he was right.
The floorboards weren’t destroyed randomly.
Only one section had been opened.
Clean.
Fast.
Precise.
Whoever broke in tonight came directly to this room.
Directly to the hiding place.
Like they’d been told exactly where to look.
Wolf’s voice dropped lower.
