Through the Flames (The Lost Letters #1)

42. Noah

Chapter 42

Noah

“ S wing for the fences, Little Bug,” Dad says, nodding at Nellie.

Her eyes are wide with delight as she grips the hammer with both hands. She rears back with an awkward swing and slams the hammer into the wall. She starts giggling immediately, dropping her hands from the hammer. When it stays in the drywall, Nellie only laughs harder.

“Pull it out,” Dad says with a matching grin on his face.

Nellie grabs the hammer and tries to yank it from the wall, but it doesn't budge. She begins to laugh hysterically, unable to do anything more than giggle.

Dad grabs the hammer and yanks it from the wall, pulling a huge chunk of drywall out. “We're gonna have to work on those muscles.”

Nellie flexes. “I’ve got muscles.”

Dad whistles as he pretends to squeeze her biceps.

“I thought you guys were here to work. Not play around, showing off your muscles,” Levi teases, walking into the room. The cacophony of construction noise follows him.

Most of his guys are downstairs working on the kitchen, while the rest of us are upstairs, opening up some of the bedrooms.

Dad, Nellie, and I are working on the primary suite right now. We’re taking down one of the walls that leads into a guest bedroom to make the space a little more functional for us.

“How’s it going down there?” I ask Levi.

“Not too bad. Ran into a couple of snags with the plumbing, but with this house as old as it is, we were prepared for that. Shouldn't be too big of a fix.” He looks around the room. “Looks like you guys are making some progress up here.”

We’ve made a ginormous mess is what we’ve done. Old wallpaper is piled up by the door, and holes are in the drywall from all of the test swings Nellie has been doing.

“We're getting there,” I say.

“Well, I'll leave you to it. I just wanted to come and check on you. The girls are making good progress picking out samples.”

Mom and Lilly have been going through the design samples Levi brought over. Based on what I saw, I’m glad I’m not the one having to make those decisions. There were too many choices, and a lot of them looked identical. I have no idea how she’s able to differentiate between them.

Levi heads back downstairs while I pick up the sledgehammer. “Stand back, Baby Bee. I'm about to make quick work of this wall.”

Nellie pushes the hard hat out of her eyes and then places the safety goggles on her face.

I rear back and swing at the wall, making a decent-sized hole. From there, I'm able to pull down all of the drywall and stack it up to be thrown away.

The room immediately feels ten times bigger, and the physical exertion has adrenaline pumping through my system.

Over the past six weeks, we've been staying with Mom and Dad. It's been a full house and hasn't always been easy, but I'm incredibly grateful they opened their doors and let us stay.

After Lilly's attack, she had no desire to be in her parents' house anymore, so we worked together to pack everything up and put it into a storage locker.

She’s healed up well since the fire, and her nightmares have been few and far between. Tony was remanded to jail without bail, and I think that helped put the whole incident behind us. Cooper doesn’t think she’ll have to testify, given the evidence they’ve amassed, but Lilly says she’s ready if she has to.

“Hey, Dad?” Nellie's voice calls from across the room.

I walk over to her. “What's up?”

“There's something wrong with the floor here.”

I look over her shoulder, and sure enough, one of the floorboards is warped.

I grab the side to see if I can wiggle it around when it springs up out of the floor without warning. I fall over, unprepared for the change in balance, making Nellie double over in laughter.

I narrow my eyes at her in fake anger, but my smile wins out and stretches across my face.

The two of us simultaneously lean over the hole, only to realize there’s something in there.

Reaching in, I pull out a brown wooden box. It's got pretty filigree carvings in it and a small High Point hook latch. I flip it open and lift the lid.

Inside is a multitude of papers, all seeming to be very dated.

“Huh, how cool is that?” I show Nellie.

“What are they?”

“Letters, I think.” The handwriting on the outside is a fancy cursive, but there aren't any stamps or return addresses, so I'm curious to find out what kind of notes they might be. “Let's take this downstairs and show your mom.” We trudge down the steps, the floorboards creaking as we go.

Mom and Lilly are still hunched over floor samples and paint colors when we walk in. They both look up from the table with bright smiles.

“You look so cute in your hard hat, sis.” Lilly gives it a tap.

Nellie ignores her. “Mom, we found some letters.”

“Some what?”

I hold the box out to her. “We found these under the floorboard upstairs.”

“Oh, wow.” Lilly gasps. She pulls out one of the letters and gently opens the envelope. She holds it open to show me and Nellie. “This one's dated 1867. I can't believe these are still in the condition they are. How did nobody find these before?”

“They were pretty hidden,” Nellie says. “There was an inconsistency in one of the planks. The floorboards seemed to be uneven, and when I tried to fix them, they moved. Then Dad messed with it, and that's when it came off. Dad fell on his butt.” Nellie laughs.

“You could’ve left that part out, Baby Bee,” I grumble.

Mom and Lilly giggle. “This is quite the find, kiddo. We'll have to read through them when we get home.”

“I’ve been thinking about that safe of yours,” Dad says as he cuts another bite of his steak. The six of us are sitting around Mom and Dad's table, eating dinner. We're all exhausted from the renovations. Carson ended up joining Uncle Levi's construction company and seems to really enjoy it. He’s on the crew renovating our house, and I love that he’s getting to be a part of it.

“What have you come up with?” Lilly asks Dad.

“I think we might be able to break into it. I’ve been doing some research, and there are different ways we can go about it. I’d like to take a crack at it after dinner if you don’t mind.”

Lilly shakes her head. “Not at all. I’d love to know what’s in there.”

The fire destroyed the manual for the safe, so after trying all the number combinations we could come up with, we’ve been at a loss as to how to open it.

Our conversation moves into wedding details, now that we’re in the homestretch of renovations. Levi thinks it’ll only take another month to finish everything, which means we’ve got a lot of planning to do for the wedding.

Lilly wants to have the wedding on the first weekend after we move into the house.

I don’t care what day we get married as long as it happens. We’ve both been pretty involved in the details. Lilly makes most of the decisions because I don’t have an opinion one way or the other, but I’ve enjoyed planning the day with her.

By the time dinner's done and the dishes are clean, Dad hollers at us from the doorway into the garage. “I think I got it open.”

Lilly and I follow him out to where he's been working on the safe.

“I won’t bore you with all the attempts, but I cracked it.” Pride fills his face as he waves at the open door.

“Thank you so much. This is incredible.” Lilly reaches in to find a stack of paperwork inside. She looks over her shoulder at me. “If this is more bank records, I'm going to be pissed.” Once she gets everything out, we carry it inside and set it on the dining room table.

On top of the stack of paperwork is an envelope with Lilly’s name on it. She quickly tears the seal and pulls out a yellow piece of paper. Lilly gasps as she reads it.

Emotions flit across her face: confusion, anger, even grief, before her arms drop. “I can’t believe this.”

She holds it out to me, and I read it.

Lilly,

If you’re reading this letter, then you know everything about my past. I’m not proud of the work I did for the Farina family, and I won’t bore you with the hows and whys I got into it.

I tried to clear my conscience by testifying, but all it did was send us into hiding. I hated that you believed we didn’t want to remember Oliver. Your mom thought it was the best choice. I disagreed, but you know your mother. I was overruled.

Anyway, I’ll keep this brief. When I realized the feds were closing in, I started stashing money away in an offshore account. The paperwork in this safe should give you the information you’ll need to access it. This money is yours by right. Don’t let what I did in my past make you feel like you can’t have it. You’re owed this money after everything we’ve kept from you.

I love you,

Dad

My mouth drops open, and I look up at Lilly. “This is crazy.”

Lilly hands over more documentation she found while I was reading the letter. Numbers and account passwords, everything she needs to know is listed here.

“I can't take this money,” Lilly says.

I shrug. I can understand why she’d feel that way. “Okay. What do you want to do with it instead?”

“Forget it even exists?”

I laugh at her expression. “I don't think we can do that. We could keep it for ourselves, give it to the police, donate it… We've got plenty of options.”

Lilly blows out a breath.

I rub my hand across the top of her back. “Hey, we don't have to make any decisions right now. This is a lot of information all at once. And we’ve got people to go to for advice. My parents will help. Cooper would help in both an officer’s capacity and as a friend.”

The building tension in Lilly's shoulder eases a little. “You're right. This has been sitting here for who knows how long. We can wait a little longer to decide what to do with it.” She wraps her arms around my waist and places her chin against my chest. “I can't wait to marry you.”

I grin as I palm the cheeks. “I can't wait to marry you.”

“Any chance you want to let me see what's in that envelope early?”

I scoff. “No. Mostly because you keep pestering me about it.”

Lilly groans. “Fine. I’ll wait.”