Chapter 3 - The Shed in the North Field
We climbed into his pickup and drove out across the fields. The moon sat low over the pasture. The house shrank behind us, then the barn, then the last line of fence.
"Where are we going?"
"North ridge field."
"I didn't know there was anything out there."
"There isn't much."
We stopped in front of a weathered wooden shed I'd never noticed before, tucked up against a row of trees, half swallowed by tall grass. Caleb cut the engine. For a few seconds neither of us moved.
"Caleb?"
He took a breath. "Before I open this, I need you to trust me."
That is not something a bride wants to hear on her wedding night.
"What is it?"
He got out, walked to the door, and fit a key into the rusted padlock. Then he looked back at me.
"For years," he said quietly, "I've been hiding this from everyone."
My heart skipped.
He pushed the door open.
Inside, there was no farm equipment. No old furniture. No boxes of junk.
Every wall had been turned into something else entirely — photographs, maps, letters, newspaper clippings, layered edge to edge.
My name was on all of it.
Me as a teenager. Me at my college graduation. Snapshots from trips I'd taken years before I ever met him.
I felt the blood drop out of my face.
"What... is this?"
He didn't answer right away. He crossed to an old wooden desk in the center of the room.
"I think," he whispered, "it's finally time you learned how long I've been waiting for you."
The words went through me like cold water.
"Caleb."
He turned around, and whatever he saw in my face made him go pale.
"No. Nora, that came out wrong."
I was already backing toward the door. "Why do you have pictures of me from high school?"
"Please. Let me explain."
"Did you follow me?"
"No."
May you like
"Then how do you have these?"
Behind us, the doorknob turned.
