Chapter 2 - THE BOX
“Vanessa!”
Lucas handed Emma to his sister, Grace, and chased the bride down the hallway.
“Stop!”
Vanessa lifted the front of her gown and hurried through a service door.
Lucas followed.
She disappeared into a private bridal suite.
By the time Lucas entered, Vanessa was standing beside a dressing table.
Her hands shook.
“What box?”
She stared at him.
“You’re humiliating me.”
“My daughter says you have something that belonged to Rachel.”
“Your daughter is confused.”
“Emma remembers everything Rachel owned.”
Vanessa laughed nervously.
“She was three when her mother died.”
“Exactly. Which means if she remembers something, it mattered.”
Lucas noticed Vanessa’s eyes flick toward a closet.
He walked toward it.
“Don’t.”
Lucas stopped.
Vanessa realized her mistake.
He opened the closet.
Behind garment bags sat a black wooden box.
Lucas’s breathing stopped.
He knew it instantly.
Rachel’s initials were carved into the lid.
R.B.
He hadn’t seen it since the week she died.
Lucas lifted it.
“Where did you get this?”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“It was in storage.”
“No.”
Rachel had hidden the box in a bank deposit locker.
Lucas knew because she had once told him, half jokingly, half seriously, “If anything ever happens to me, that box stays closed until Emma turns eighteen.”
After Rachel died in a car accident, Lucas searched for the box.
It was gone.
He assumed Rachel had moved it.
Now it was sitting in his bride’s closet.
“Where did you get it?”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
“You really want to do this today?”
“Yes.”
“In my wedding dress?”
“You locked my child in a bathroom.”
“I told you I didn’t.”
Lucas held up the brass key.
Vanessa stared at it.
Then the door opened.
Vanessa’s mother, Diane, rushed inside.
“What is going on?”
“Ask your daughter.”
Diane saw the box.
Her expression changed.
Lucas caught it immediately.
“You know what this is.”
Diane recovered quickly.
“No.”
“You looked terrified.”
“I’m shocked that you’re attacking Vanessa minutes before the ceremony.”
Lucas turned toward the box.
There was a small silver lock on the front.
Rachel had worn the key on a chain.
Lucas remembered burying that chain with her.
At least he thought he had.
Emma entered behind Grace.
“Daddy.”
Lucas turned.
Emma pointed toward Vanessa’s neckline.
“There.”
Vanessa touched her throat.
“What?”
“The key.”
Lucas stepped closer.
Beneath Vanessa’s necklace, almost hidden under lace, was a tiny silver key.
The same key Rachel had worn every day.
Lucas reached for it.
Vanessa slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Lucas stared into her eyes.
“Why are you wearing my dead wife’s key?”
Diane moved between them.
“This wedding is over if you keep behaving this way.”
Lucas looked at Emma.
His daughter was pale.
Then he looked at Vanessa.
“The wedding is already over.”
Gasps came from the doorway.
Vanessa’s face twisted.
“You don’t mean that.”
Lucas pulled out his phone.
“I do.”
Vanessa suddenly grabbed the wooden box.
Lucas reached for it.
She shoved him.
The box fell.
The lid cracked.
A folded envelope slid through the broken seam.
May you like
On the front, written in Rachel’s handwriting, were six words.
Lucas, if you are reading this, run.
