Chapter 33 - the estate no one inheritedThe trust gave Rose, Daniel and Evelyn joint authority over the Mercer estate.
None of them wanted to live there.
Rose proposed turning it into a legal center for families affected by fraudulent guardianships.
Evelyn wanted the house sold.
Daniel wanted it demolished.
They met in Richard’s study to decide.
Emma wandered toward the old nursery.
Lily followed her.
When Daniel found them, they were removing photographs from the surveillance wall.
“These are ours,” Lily said.
“No,” Emma answered. “They belong to the bad room.”
Daniel looked at the hundreds of images.
Destroying the house would not erase what happened.
Selling it might place the secrets behind another family’s walls.
Rose’s proposal offered another possibility.
They voted.
Evelyn opposed it at first, then changed her mind.
The estate became the Bennett-Mercer Center for Family Justice.
Richard’s study became a records archive.
The nursery became a children’s library.
The bell tower was repaired, but the bell was never used.
Daniel kept only one object from the house.
Mr. Buttons.
Inside the rabbit’s ear, beneath the place where the note had been hidden, he found one final message from Richard.
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It contained only six words:
DO BETTER THAN WE DID, SON.
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