The Tree’s Bones Hold His Sweetheart’s Crime

Chapter 5

Rosalie's POV:

Three days after the police carried my skeletal remains away, Kaden returned to the ancient ginkgo tree alone.

An unshakable feeling gnawed at him, telling him that something was amiss.

He felt certain that the damp earth packed inside that hollow hid something more.

Slipping on his gloves, Kaden grabbed his trowel and began carefully excavating the deeper layers of soil.

Roughly 8 inches down, his fingers brushed against a solid texture beneath the dirt.

He gently swept away the loose earth.

There, peeking through a narrow crevice in the soil, was a tiny, fragile leaf.

Kaden's hand trembled violently.

He recognized those leaves instantly.

The vibrant, golden veins radiating through the green would shimmer like spun gold when they caught the sunlight.

It was the mutated ginkgo.

Three years ago, the world believed this priceless golden ginkgo had been stolen and smuggled away by the poachers.

But it wasn't dead, and it hadn't been stolen.

It had been buried deep inside the hollow of this ancient trunk, cocooned in the earth, drawing life from a decaying body and growing silently for three long years.

The moment Kaden realized whose body had nourished the plant, his eyes welled with hot tears.

My voice echoed back to him from across the years, recalling what I had proudly told him. "Professor Henderson, I will protect this golden ginkgo sapling with my life. No one is ever going to take it away."

So, his student had kept her promise, guarding it with her life for three years.

As he dug deeper into the soil, another object came to light.

It was a small, black cylindrical item with a metallic sheen, heavily corroded and pitted with rust from years in the damp earth.

It was a voice recorder.

Remarkably, despite the passage of three years, the device still retained power.

He flipped the switch, and a fragmented, static-filled voice began to play.

Kaden listened for a mere thirty seconds before his entire body began to shake uncontrollably.

Suddenly, Judith's voice cut through the white noise.

He heard her state, with chilling clarity, "Get rid of her. Make sure there isn't a single trace left behind."

Kaden's fingers tightened around the recorder until his knuckles turned white.

Standing up, he looked out toward the city below, its lights blazing in the distance.

He took a deep, steadying breath and dialed his phone.

"I need to report a crime," he said, his voice hard.

"I have new evidence regarding the Golden Ginkgo case from three years ago. Rosalie wasn't the perpetrator. She was the victim."