“What is all this?” Holly couldn’t help but smile. The kitchen looked like something out of a movie set.
Garret, who manned the stove, looked over his shoulder at her and grinned.
“You had one hell of a day yesterday,” he said. “The best way to remedy that is a home-cooked meal.”
“Meal? This is a buffet.” She chuckled.
“It’s not just for you,” Keller said from the sink, where he was already working through dirty dishes. “You’d be surprised to see how much we can eat in one sitting.”
“Nothing can surprise me after yesterday.” She sighed and plunked down onto the barstool. She looked up just in time to see Garret and Keller exchange a weighted look. “Unless you know something I don’t, which I’m sure you do.”
“Let’s wait until after breakfast before we dive back into all that,” Keller said gently.
Holly couldn’t argue with that. Breakfast sounded fantastic. Just as Garret set down a plate piled high with more food than Holly could eat in a day, Johnny walked in. In his hands, was a white envelope.
“Is that another letter?” Holly suddenly felt very exhausted.
“Yeah.” Johnny placed it in front of her. “Since things spun off plan pretty quickly, I figured I should just give it to you.” Johnny and Keller exchanged a tense glance.
“Let’s get this over with.” Holly took the letter from Johnny. “I can’t eat with it next to me. I have to know what’s in it.” Perhaps, everything would finally make sense. Holly didn’t hold her breath as she tore open the letter.
My dearest granddaughter,
Holly fought the urge to roll her eyes. Who knew Pearl had such a flair for the dramatic?
I hope you love the house as much as I did. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Johnny, Keller, and Garret sooner. There may be more living in the house since my passing, but of course, I can’t be sure. In any event, I’m sorry for not telling you about whoever may or may not be living in my house at this time.
Holly set the letter down.
“How many more of you are there?” she asked.
“Excuse me?” Johnny chuckled.
“Living here. How many live here in total?”
“Just us three now,” Keller replied.
“But there were others?”
“Yes, one of them was your grandmother,” Garret said with a smirk. Holly narrowed her eyes.
“One of them? How many people, besides my grandmother, lived here?”
“This house is old.” Johnny shrugged. “Who knows how many?”
Holly let out a frustrated groan. “Just answer my damn questions!”
“Pearl kept the doors open to anyone who needed a roof over their head,” Keller supplied. “The numbers varied. All three of us were in and out multiple times, but we eventually moved in permanently when Pearl started getting on in age.”
Another twinge of guilt hit Holly. Was Grandmother Pearl so convinced she couldn’t rely on her own family that she made a brand new one here? She turned her attention back to the letter.
I can’t be sure if you’ve gotten a chance to look at my will. The lawyers likely just told you I’d left you the house. I want to take this opportunity now to inform you of the conditions of your inheritance.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Holly sighed.
“What?” Johnny asked.
“As if you don’t know.” She rolled her eyes. “Pearl put conditions on my inheritance.”
“We actually didn’t know that,” Garret said, brow furrowed.
“Oh.”
As much as I would like you to live in the house until your death and keep it in the family forever, I don’t feel right forcing you to alter your life so drastically without giving you a say. With that in mind, my conditions are as follows. Once you arrive at the house, you must remain here for thirty days. At the end of those thirty days, you may make your decision. You can take longer than thirty days to make your choice, but you cannot make one sooner. I don’t want you to rush into any decision, even if it’s one that works in my favor.
“What do you mean, works in your favor? You’re dead! You don’t have a favor,” Holly muttered at the page.
“What does it say?” Keller asked.
“I have to stay here for a month. Did you know that?”
“We knew you’d be staying for at least a month, but we didn’t know you didn’t know,” Garret said. He had an honest face.
Holly believed he told the truth at every opportunity. That might be wishful thinking, but that was all she had right now.
“Pearl did have a mischievous streak,” Keller said. “She probably got a kick out of things when she was writing it.”
“Oh, was she?” Holly said. “Well, as long as my being manipulated into uprooting my life gave my estranged grandmother a giggle, then it’s all good!”
She pushed away from the table and stormed off. Seconds ago, she was starving. Now, the idea of food made her stomach roll. She made a beeline for the study with the strange murals. For reasons she wasn’t in the headspace to contemplate, that room seemed like the best place to go.
The air in that room seemed...fresher somehow. It soothed the rising heat in Holly’s cheeks and gave her a small sense of calm. It wasn’t enough to tackle the enormity of what she was feeling, but it was a start. She still held the letter, but she didn’t bother finishing it. She wasn’t sure how much more she could stomach.
She strode right up to where
