Six Years After the Lake Trip, One Blue Envelope Upended Everything Clara Believed

I unhooked the brass catch and raised the wooden lid.

Inside was a thick blue envelope, its paper stiff and yellowed at the edges.

Under the envelope lay an old brass key ring with two keys I hadn’t seen in six years.

I lifted out the blue envelope.

It was heavy in my hand, stuffed tight with folded papers.

“Go ahead and open it,” Sophie said.

I pulled back the top flap of the blue envelope and slid what was inside out into the round beam of the flashlight.

The first three pages were sharp photocopies of bank ledgers from Oakhaven Savings Bank.