Chapter 3 - The Box Stays Closed
Daniel drove to Rachel’s immediately.
He expected Sophie to be asleep.
She wasn’t.
She sat on the floor surrounded by wooden blocks.
The walnut box rested in her lap.
Rachel pointed.
“She won’t let me touch it.”
Daniel knelt.
“Sophie.”
She looked up.
“Daddy.”
He smiled gently.
“Can Daddy see the box?”
She tightened her arms.
“No.”
Another clear word.
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
“She’s been saying that all evening.”
Daniel did not force it away.
Not yet.
Instead, he examined it while Sophie held it.
Old walnut.
Small brass latch.
No visible keyhole.
A carved symbol on the lid.
Three circles inside a triangle.
Daniel felt an unpleasant flicker of recognition.
“Have you seen that before?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know.”
That was not entirely true.
The symbol reminded him of something.
A notebook.
Michael’s notebook.
His older brother used to doodle strange geometric designs constantly.
Three circles.
Triangles.
Daniel remembered teasing him.
Alien conspiracy nonsense.
Michael had been twenty-seven when he died.
Daniel was twenty-two.
After the crash, their father boxed up Michael’s belongings.
Most disappeared after their parents moved.
Rachel leaned closer.
“Michael?”
Daniel nodded.
“What does Sophie have to do with Michael?”
“Nothing.”
Then he remembered Vanessa’s claim.
Someone may have placed the box in the office recently.
Who had access?
Vanessa.
Rachel.
Daniel’s cleaning service.
His mother, Evelyn, occasionally.
Contractors.
Dozens over years.
But Sophie had apparently known exactly where to find it.
That bothered him.
Then Ethan came downstairs.
He had changed into pajamas.
Daniel immediately saw his body stiffen when he noticed the box.
“You know what this is?”
Ethan stared at Sophie.
Then shook his head.
Too fast.
“Ethan.”
“I don’t.”
Daniel sat beside him.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Ethan began crying.
“I promised.”
“Promised who?”
“Sophie.”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
Daniel kept his voice gentle.
“Sophie can’t ask you to keep secrets.”
“She didn’t.”
“Then who?”
Ethan whispered:
“The lady.”
Silence.
“What lady?”
“The one who came to the window.”
Daniel felt cold.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Vanessa had been out grocery shopping.
Ethan was watching cartoons.
A woman appeared outside the back patio doors.
Older.
Gray hair.
She didn’t enter.
She tapped on the glass.
Ethan opened the door because he recognized her.
“Who?”
He whispered:
“Grandma.”
Daniel frowned.
Their mother Evelyn lived forty minutes away.
He called her immediately.
Evelyn answered.
“No, I wasn’t at your house yesterday.”
Ethan shook his head violently.
“Not Grandma Evelyn.”
Daniel stared.
“I only have one mother.”
Ethan pointed at an old family photograph on Rachel’s shelf.
Michael.
Daniel.
Their parents.
And standing in the background, half-hidden, was another woman.
Daniel’s aunt Caroline.
His father’s younger sister.
Dead twenty years.
At least that was what Daniel had always been told.
Ethan pointed.
“That grandma.”
Daniel’s heartbeat slowed.
“That isn’t your grandmother.”
“She said she was.”
“What did she want?”
Ethan looked toward the box.
“She told me if Sophie found the little wooden thing, I had to make sure Vanessa never got it.”
Then Daniel asked:
“Why?”
May you like
Ethan started crying harder.
“Because she said Vanessa already killed one person for it.”
