Page 150 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Misery Island wasn’t too far from here—less than a half an hour by boat, if that, and when they reached it, who knew what dangers awaited them? Crabb had made it very difficult to find the Relics—things weren’t going to go smoothly inside the pond either. Luther and his minions wouldn’t just be grabbing that treasure and walking off with it.
No way!
Jessie should’ve really let me come along, except… somehow he’d known Luther cared nothing for our lives.
I had every hope that I’d find a way out of this lighthouse, but last time Haven had been stuck up here, none of the neighbors had heard her screams. She’d been forced to call us for help. Randy had to come from the sheriff’s office, and it had taken hours to free her.
Groaning, I watched the boats speed over the water for Misery Island.
Aptly named.
My fingers crushed Haven’s letter against me, and breathing heavily, I looked down at the envelope. In my desperation, I’d forgotten I had it.
Jessie had almost ruined our marriage to get this back. What was in it?
Chapter Forty
Ipeeled open the thick leaves of papers, recognizing Haven’s bold handwriting, though the usual care she put into her penmanship was all but forgotten, and as I read through the contents, I knew why:
“Felicity! He’s a snake! An absolute snake! Drake came this afternoon to pay his respects—as he calls it! And yet told me such things… well, I don’t know what to believe. He tells me that Matthew has been married before.”
I gasped. Was this true? No! Drake was the liar. I didn’t know him, but already I trusted Matthew over that… snake!
“Not only that, but he says that Matthew never separated from this supposed first wife and so that makes what we have void. I cannot fathom… and yet, Matthew was more than happy to keep us secret. I thought it was my idea to keep our marriage under wraps, but could he have tricked me? I don’t want to believe that Matthew would ever do such a thing to me, and still… there had been so much unspoken between us, especially in the end.”
I knew the feeling. I kept reading:
“Drake told me that the half of the locket Matthew gave me belongs to his family, and if I don’t return it to him that he will take all the property that Matthew bought for me—your family’s home… after he’d worked so hard to save us! Can you imagine? Drake says that he’s meant to inherit, not some woman who tricked Matthew into her bed.”
What a jerk! At this point, I didn’t put anything past Drake. He wanted that locket to get at that treasure. He couldn’t do the right thing and comfort his brother’s widow.
“I still don’t know what to believe! Matthew isn’t here to tell me the truth. Drake provided marriage certificates between Matthew and this other woman, Felicity! What am I to think?”
I could tell her—don’t believe him! And yet another nagging part of me wagged its finger at me and reminded me how naïve I was. This couldn’t be the perfect romance just because I wanted it to be. Shock and devastation rushed through my senses until I almost couldn’t tell the difference between what was happening on these pages to what was happening to me:
“I’m heartbroken. Drake wants to meet me at Gerry, says that there’s something he wants me to see on the island. Please say you’ll come with me. I cannot face that snake alone again. I don’t know what he will do if I don’t have someone there to act as a witness. I know that you are expecting soon, but if you have the strength in you, I need you, Felicity!”
So Haven met Drake at Gerry before he died. This proved nothing!Even Pete insinuated that Haven had an idea of what happened to Drake that night.So what? That didn’t mean she killed him.
There were more papers in the envelope. There wasn’t just one letter in here, but multiple ones. I picked up the next page, seeing it was also from Haven:
“Felicity, you cannot blame yourself for what happened. It’s my fault, do you hear? It is all mine! They can’t prove I started that fire, and if anyone comes around asking questions, we can say his death was self-defense because… it was! Drake tried to take every kind of advantage of me—his brother’s wife—and if you hadn’t come when you did with your screams, I can’t even imagine what he would’ve done. He attacked me!”
I was blown away. Haven had started the fire on the boat. She admitted it herself, and yet this was so clearly not her fault! Would the courts have seen it that way?
“How can such a devil be related to Matthew? I’m in shock. I can’t seem to catch my breath since that dreadful night, and I’m wracked with so much fear and dismay, but not guilt. Never guilt, not for what happened to him anyway! I worry more for you! Are you okay? I am so sorry I dragged you into this.”
And yet, if Haven hadn’t brought Felicity along, she could’ve been the one who had died that night. I was almost certain of it.
“Please, don’t worry about a thing! We only need to get our story straight… even though I still cannot grasp everything that happened, or all that was said; we need to get together. Tonight! Nothing will come of this. You’ll see, even the papers mentioned nothing.”
I remembered Haven’s notes on the mystery board about the papers saying nothing about Drake’s death. She hadn’t been trying to solve the mystery; she was covering her bases.
“One last thing—Drake had the other side of Crabb’s locket. I did not find it on his body. Did you take it?”
Yeah, that sounded bad. No wonder Luther thought he could use this to blackmail Jessie into working with him. If he brought this letter to the police after all these years, they would definitely suspect foul play, and rightly so, but what if there was something more to this story? Nagging thoughts plagued my mind.
Had Luther’s brother used these letters to go after Robert? But why did Robert kill him? He wasn’t such good friends with Haven that he’d throw away his life for her…
