Chapter 10 - THE BANK BOX
Rebecca arrived before the bank opened. She hugged me so tightly I felt six years old again.
“You have her eyes,” she said.
Dad came with us. Mia stayed home with Officer Harris’s contact number and strict instructions to let no one inside.
At the bank, an employee checked the paperwork. My mother had left a small box in my name. The brass key fit.
Inside were photographs, two letters, a sketchbook, and a savings account statement.
I lifted the sketchbook first. On the opening page, my mother had drawn a blue dress. The design looked nothing like the one Mia had cut, but the color was almost the same.
A note in the margin read: FOR CLAIRE, WHEN SHE FINDS HER OWN WAY.
I had forgotten that Mom used to design clothes. She stitched costumes for community theater and took small alteration jobs from neighbors. When I started sewing, I thought I’d discovered it on my own.
Rebecca touched the page. “She would have loved seeing what you made.”
The account statement showed money Mom had set aside for my education. Dad had contributed to it for years, but the account had been opened while she was alive.
I turned to him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to wait until graduation. I thought it would be a good surprise.” His face tightened. “I didn’t tell Denise about the box.”
The first letter was addressed to me. Mom wrote about being scared she might not have enough time to teach me everything she wanted. She told me to make things, to leave places that made me feel small, and to come home to people who treated me well.
The second letter was for Dad. He read it quietly. When he finished, he passed it to me.
Near the bottom, Mom had written: Please don’t let guilt decide Claire’s life for her.
Dad folded the letter carefully.
May you like
His phone buzzed with a message from Mia.
MOM CAME BACK. SHE’S IN YOUR OFFICE. I THINK SHE’S TAKING THE ACCOUNT FILES.
