Bitter inheritance

chapter 4

### Chapter Four: The Compass

The letter came a week later, delivered by Aldridge with visible reluctance — a second envelope from her father's estate, one that had apparently been held back per specific instruction until Elena had "spent sufficient time in Damian's company to hear it without wanting to burn the building down."

Her father, it seemed, had known her rather well.

She read it alone, in her father's old study, the brass compass finally back in her palm where Damian had returned it without a word two days before.

*Elena,*

*By now you know about the trust, and you probably hate me a little for it. Good. Hate me. But read this before you decide anything.*

*The fire wasn't Cross's doing. It wasn't an accident either. I set it myself, to destroy records that would have proven my own hand in a fraud that would have ended both our houses and put good men in prison. Damian's father took the blame because I asked him to — because it would ruin one family instead of two, and mine had a daughter who still needed a future.*

*Damian doesn't know this. His father never told him, and I was too much of a coward to. I've spent ten years watching you hate a boy who did nothing but inherit the silence I forced on his family. Fix it, if you can bear to. If you can't, at least stop hating him for my sins.*

*I'm sorry it took my death to tell you the truth. I was always better with objects than people.*

*— Dad*

Elena sat with the letter for a long time before she picked up her phone.