Chapter 1 - The Broken Vase
The antique vase shattered at 4:17 on a Saturday afternoon.
Caleb had been running through Vanessa's living room with a wooden airplane in his hands, making the soft engine noises six-year-old boys believed sounded completely realistic.
He backed into the console table.
The vase tipped.
Rachel saw it falling from the kitchen doorway.
“Caleb—”
Too late.
Porcelain exploded across the tile.
Caleb stopped moving.
His little airplane dropped from his hand.
“I didn't mean to!”
Vanessa came running.
For one second, she stared at the pieces.
Then at Caleb.
Rachel had seen her sister angry before.
She had never seen that expression.
“You little—”
Vanessa grabbed Caleb by the hair.
He screamed.
Rachel moved before she thought.
She ripped Vanessa's hand away, pulled Caleb behind her, then slapped her sister twice.
“LEAVE MY SON ALONE!”
Vanessa stumbled backward.
Shock became rage.
She grabbed Rachel's hair.
The sisters crashed into the console.
Vanessa shoved Rachel toward the broken porcelain.
Rachel threw out her hand.
Pain shot through her palm.
A jagged piece had cut into it.
Vanessa pointed toward the front door.
“YOU POOR PEOPLE, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
Rachel stared at her.
Poor people.
Two weeks earlier, Vanessa had begged Rachel and Caleb to stay with her after Rachel's landlord announced the apartment building was being sold.
Now she was throwing them onto the street because a six-year-old broke a vase.
Rachel pulled the porcelain from her palm, wrapped her hand with a dish towel, and took Caleb outside.
He cried quietly beside her.
“Mom… where will we stay?”
Rachel crouched.
“I'll figure it out.”
Behind them, Vanessa slammed the door.
Rachel looked back at the enormous colonial house.
Something about Vanessa's words bothered her.
Not the insult.
My house.
Their mother, Evelyn, had owned this property.
When Evelyn died eleven months earlier, Vanessa claimed she'd inherited it.
Rachel never questioned that.
Why would she?
Vanessa had cared for Evelyn during her final months.
Rachel had been working two jobs and raising Caleb alone.
Maybe their mother had rewarded the daughter who stayed.
Rachel accepted it.
Until that evening.
At urgent care, the nurse removed Rachel's makeshift bandage.
Something fell from inside it.
Not porcelain.
A tiny brass key.
Rachel stared.
It must have been inside the broken vase.
Attached to the key was a metal tag.
A number.
And beneath it, three engraved letters.
R.E.M.
Rachel's initials.
Rachel Elizabeth Mercer.
Her mother's maiden name had been Mercer.
Rachel stared at the key.
Then remembered something Evelyn had said three days before dying.
Vanessa had been outside the hospital room.
Evelyn squeezed Rachel's hand.
“If your sister ever tells you everything belongs to her, don't argue.”
Rachel had laughed nervously.
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
Evelyn's eyes had drifted toward the door.
“Break something.”
Rachel had assumed morphine was confusing her.
May you like
Now she understood.
Her mother had not been confused at all.
