Chapter 3 - THE KEY
Vanessa recovered too quickly.
"I don't."
Adrian stared at her.
"You looked at that key like you'd seen a ghost."
"Because this entire scene is insane."
Lily picked up the brass key before anyone else could reach it.
"Mommy put it there."
Adrian turned toward her. "What did you say?"
Lily rubbed her swollen cheek with the back of her hand.
"She told me the bear had a secret."
The sentence hit Adrian harder than the video.
His first wife, Elena, had died four years earlier after a sudden illness. For months afterward, Lily slept with the teddy bear pressed under her chin because it still smelled faintly like her mother's lavender lotion.
Adrian had never opened it.
He had never known there was anything inside.
"When did she tell you?" he asked.
"Before the hospital. She said when I was bigger, I should ask you about the little blue box."
Adrian's expression changed.
Clara saw recognition.
"What blue box?" she asked.
He looked toward the staircase.
"Elena's writing desk."
Vanessa stepped in front of him.
"Adrian, this is grief talking. You need to slow down."
He walked around her.
"Clara, take Lily upstairs and put ice on her cheek."
Lily grabbed his sleeve.
"No. I want to come."
Adrian knelt.
For the first time since entering the house, his anger cracked enough to show fear.
"You don't have to be brave for me."
"I'm not." Lily swallowed. "I just don't want her touching Mommy's things."
Vanessa stiffened.
Adrian looked up at her.
"Has Vanessa been in Elena's room?"
Lily said nothing.
That silence answered him.
They went upstairs together.
Elena's old study had been kept mostly untouched. Vanessa had called it unhealthy more than once, but Adrian had refused to clear it.
The walnut writing desk sat under the window.
Inside the lower cabinet was a small blue lacquered box Adrian remembered buying in Florence during his honeymoon.
The brass key fit perfectly.
Vanessa appeared in the doorway.
"Don't open that."
Adrian turned.
Her voice had not sounded angry.
It had sounded afraid.
He unlocked the box.
Inside lay a sealed envelope, an old flash drive, and a handwritten note.
May you like
Across the front, in Elena's handwriting, were five words:
FOR ADRIAN - IF I AM GONE.
