Mój mąż miał romans z moją siostrą, podczas gdy ja opiekowałam się jego chorą matką. Po pogrzebie rozwiedliśmy się, a oni się zaręczyli. Jednak kilka dni później krzyknął: „Od początku wiedziałaś, że moja matka to zrobi!”

And somewhere inside it, she’d left me something Zion was desperate to find first.

“This isn’t the end of it,”

***

A week later, Valerie’s lawyer called me in to collect the keys.

He walked me through the part of the will where Valerie left the house to me.

Then he reached the strange part.

“There is something else Valerie asked me to point out to you.”

He turned the document toward me.

Then he reached the strange part.

Beneath the provision leaving me the house, Valerie had written:

“I have left something in my home for her as well. I hope I’m wrong, but after recent conversations, I think she’ll need it one day.”

I read it twice.

Recent conversations… Suddenly, Zion’s panic at my front door took on new meaning.

Whatever Valerie had hidden wasn’t some sentimental keepsake.

“I think she’ll need it one day.”

It was something she thought I might need.

But what?

And how did it connect to Zion?

Had the recent conversation she’d referenced involved him?

***

When I unlocked Valerie’s front door, I understood just how desperately Zion had searched for what Valerie left me.

Had the recent conversation she’d referenced involved him?

The house looked violated.

Cabinet doors hung open.

Drawers had been dumped onto floors.

Boxes from Valerie’s closets were scattered across bedrooms.

I started putting things back.

Halfway through, I caught the faint smell of Valerie’s lavender hand cream and had to sit down.

The house looked violated.

Zion had torn through his mother’s home looking for whatever she’d left me.

But he had barely touched the sunroom.

That was the first place I decided to look.

I sat at our table.