Chapter 16 - JOSEPHINE’S HORSE
Police eventually released the shattered rocking horse pieces.
The assault case had closed.
Trust investigators had photographed the cavity and maker marks.
Maya asked what I wanted.
“Destroy them.”
Josephine surprised me.
“No.”
She was seven.
“What do you want?”
“One piece.”
“Why?”
“The part with the flower.”
I had forgotten.
Rebecca once painted a small blue flower underneath the horse’s saddle when Josephine was a baby.
She had visited Robert’s storage barn and recognized Arthur’s prototype.
Maybe that was when her curiosity began.
The flower survived the shattering.
We kept that single piece.
No brass key.
No secret compartment.
Just Rebecca’s paint.
The rest went to standard disposal.
The H-17 key entered the Hearthwood archive after litigation.
Displayed?
No.
Stored with records.
I did not want relics glorifying family secrecy.
Josephine’s wooden fragment sat on her bookshelf beside ordinary toys.
May you like
Years later she would forget where it came from.
That felt healthy.
