Page 184 of On Edge

“She is a lot. You owe me.” I yank her to me, my hands on her hips. She’s perfect the way she slots right into me. “Does this mean it costs more?”

Sage bites her lip in a way that makes me want to bite her too. “We can tell her to slow down if you want.”

“No. She’s fine. It’s going to be perfect, and that’s all that matters. I want you to have a house you love, not feel trapped in.”

“Even if it means tearing out walls your family built in the 1800s?”

“Especially then.” I brush a strand of dark hair from her face. “New beginnings, remember? We can’t live in a damn crypt.”

She studies my face for a long moment, then seems to come to a decision. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to show you something. But you’ve been busy with work, and I’ve been busy Christmas shopping and…”

She’s rambling now, and I let her. I can’t believe it used to annoy me when she chattered away, but now it makes me want to stop everything I’m doing and listen. She’s a distraction but a good one, a light to my dark.

“….studying the letter with Laine. Nell’s, I mean my, letter to you.”

I zone back in, and my entire body tenses at the mention of the letter. Sage has read it so many times that the paper is wearing thin. I…can’t bring myself to.

“What about it?” I try not to sound like a dick when I say it.

“There’s a code.” Her eyes are bright with excitement. “Look.”

She pulls out her phone and shows me a photo of the letter, with certain words circled. When I read just the first letters of each paragraph, my breath catches.

S-E-V-E-N S-W-A-N-S-I-L-Y

“Seven swansily,” I read it. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“No, silly. Seven Swans. I thought it might be nothing, just a coincidence, but then I remembered when I was cleaning.” She turns toward the fireplace, pulling me with her. “Look at the brickwork.”

I follow her gaze to the stone fireplace surround. I don’t know how I missed it before, but there, carved into the decorative stonework around the opening, are swans, seven of them when I count. Each swan has its neck curved in elegant arcs around the ornamental scrollwork.

How many times have I stared at this fireplace and never truly seen them?

“Seven for treasures hid up high,”Sage says softly. “I left you a message in the letter. I was telling you and probably myself, where to find it.”

My heart is pounding. “The evidence.”

“Should we try looking up there?”

I’m already moving toward the fireplace. There’s old wood still stacked inside it, kindling that’s been there for years. I step over the hearth and then reach into the dark chimney.

I feel around until something comes loose. A brick. I ease it out, and behind it is a hollow space. There’s an old fire mitt in it. I pull it out carefully and feel for what’s inside, and then I set it on the floor between us.

A burner phone and a bunch of tightly rolled documents.

Sage opens the roll, and I recognize forgeries immediately. There are property transfers that never happened, financial records that prove Richard Lovett’s systematic destruction of my family’s assets after the fire. The phone, of course, is dead, but ifthere’s proof on there that Richard paid someone to set the fire and frame me. Then it’s over.

Later,when the fire is roaring, Sage is on the rug beside it, flipping through the phone’s content, her expression growing darker.

“I’m glad that bastard is dead.” She glares at me. “Do you know what that pet food factory is for?” She shakes her head. “No, you don’t, because it’s too disturbing to even…” Her voice trails off with a shudder.

I take the phone off her and set it down, and then pull her into my arms. She’s shaking. “It’s over.”

“Not yet. We have to do something with all this.”

I look at the evidence spread around us; the proof of Richard Lovett’s crimes, of my innocence, basically, everything I’ve been searching for, and built my revenge around, right here on my damn rug. I searched this place night and day after I bought it. When Nell disappeared, all I knew was that the evidence was at Grayfleet. But where, I had no clue. And the answer was here the whole time.

Sage left it for me.