PART 7

The Envelope With the Red Seal

I should have put the letter down and apologized.

Instead, another memory caught at me.

Vivian had delivered a packet to my home office two days before the wedding.

I remembered the unusual red wax seal on one envelope, an affectation of the old family business in Greensboro.

I had asked what it was.

“Just vendor correspondence,” Vivian said, placing the stack beneath two acquisition contracts.