Chapter 8 - Unearthing the Past
Three days after Julian’s arrest, the federal investigation into his financial crimes expanded rapidly. Authorities uncovered a web of fraudulent loans, hidden offshore bank accounts, and several other victims he had scammed over the past decade.
Morgan spent her days walking through her grandmother’s cottage, sorting through old photo albums and boxes of memories that Julian had tried to strip away from her.
While cleaning out the old wooden desk in the back study, her hand brushed against a loose floorboard beneath the bottom drawer. Curious, she pried it open with a flathead screwdriver.
Inside lay a small, velvet-lined wooden box that she had never seen before.
Inside the box was an old, handwritten letter from her grandmother Clara, dated twenty years ago, along with a photograph of the elderly woman on the CTA bus who had worn the grey trench coat and green beret, smelling faintly of lavender.
Morgan’s hands trembled as she read her grandmother’s letter:
May you like
“My dearest Morgan, if you are reading this, it means the old warning was passed down to you just as my mother passed it down to me. The women in our family carry a rare gift of intuition, but sometimes we need a little help from those who walked before us. Trust your instincts, protect your heart, and never let anyone take away your peace.”
Tears welled in Morgan’s eyes. The old woman on the bus wasn't just an eccentric stranger; she was part of an unbroken lineage of protective spirits guiding her through the darkest storm of her life.
