Chapter 4
When Isabella returned home, it was night and the children should have been asleep, but it had started raining heavily and the children were gathered in a room upstairs with their night clothes and candles in their hands. Alice, Jessica and Sara could not sleep, maybe because they thought that ghosts wandered in their house at night, as if they had lost something and searched everywhere in the house for it, but among them Alice was more afraid because she was restless because of the death of her parents and when thunder struck, she quickly ran to her mother's room and hugged her to calm down. When that night thunder struck again, Alice ran to her mother's study as usual and the children followed her into the room. Then they all realized that the room was terribly messy, the window glass was broken and the wind pulled and shook the white curtain inside, in a corner of the room there was a small library that had overturned and its books were scattered on the floor, the table and chair were overturned. The children walked around the room and looked around with surprise until Alice's foot hit a suitcase and stopped near the table. Alice looked under her feet and realized that several envelopes were scattered on the floor. She bent down curiously and brought the candle close to one of them. The corner of the envelope was slightly inked. She picked it up. While Sara and Jessica still looked around curiously.
Sara said: "This place is really scary."
Jessica said: "I think it's really exciting." Then she quietly sneaked behind Sara and scared her and ran away.
Sara ran after Jessica for revenge.
Jessica suddenly stopped and said: "Sara, let's tidy up this table and chair and read one of these letters. It looks very interesting and mysterious."
"But this is not right. I'll tell mom."
Jessica turned to Sara and said: "Mary has made walnut cake. I know where she hid it. When we get home, a big plate of delicious walnut cake is waiting for you."
Then they tidied up the table and chair together. Alice gave the letter to Jessica and asked her to read it aloud. Jessica took the envelope and examined it but there was nothing on it that she could tell who wrote the letter. Then she sat on the chair and brought the candle close to the letter and started reading it aloud:
I couldn't believe that Mr. David O'Connor had destroyed my family and then accepted me as his adopted child for relief from his conscience and compassion for me. I couldn't believe that John killed my father with a bullet. I thought that 1s family who loved me so much could not have done such a thing to my family. My dear brother, don't feel calm for a moment and be very careful of Alice and Emily from now on you are all in danger I will take revenge.
Mr. David O'Connor was Alice's grandfather. Jane McKenzie had shown in this letter that she hated David O'Connor and his son.
The truth was that Alice did not understand some of the words in that letter very well, and she did not feel good about hearing them either. Maybe that was why she jumped out of bed in horror at night and cried until morning. She was restless and uneasy during the day. The fact that her parents were no longer with her was a painful truth that Alice had not yet believed. She felt their presence everywhere in the house. Some days she cried several times and for some unknown reason she was afraid of that house, which was full of sweet memories. This was upsetting for Isabella and the children, because they could not be a good comforter for her, so that Jessica and Sara each secretly cried in a corner of the house and Isabella felt helpless.