Chapter 2 - The Thing My Sister Buried
I sat in the driver's seat with the engine off and the gift box still in my lap, shaking like the temperature had dropped forty degrees.
Five years. Five years of thinking I was loved by a man who called me a trap.
I couldn't walk back in there. Not yet. So I called my sister, Beth.
"He said he's been planning something since high school," I whispered. "Beth, what does that even mean? Planning what?"
The line went quiet. Not confused-quiet. Careful-quiet.
"Okay," she finally said. "There's something I should have told you a long time ago. I never knew how to bring it up."
"Bring what up?"
"Before you and Ethan got together — the summer before senior year — his mom came to see Mom. Alone. She offered our family money." Beth's voice tightened. "A lot of money. She said it was important that Ethan marry you. She said there was something in our family, something to do with the property or your dad's side, that he needed to be able to reach."
I couldn't get a full breath.
"Beth. Why would you keep that from me?"
"Because it seemed to go nowhere. Mom turned her down flat and Ethan spent the next ten years acting like he was crazy about you. Mom told me to bury it and I did. I'm sorry."
I looked up at our front door. The lights inside were on. Somewhere in that house, Ethan was still on the phone, and at one point I heard him laugh.
My phone buzzed against my knee.
May you like
A text from a number with no name attached.
He's not in there alone. Ask him who owns the account in your name.
