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“Yeah,” she said like it was obvious.
“Okay. Well, this isn’t a safety deposit box key.”
“What? Why? How do you know?” Scrambling to her knees, she took the key from him and examined it closer, looking for something he saw that she hadn’t. Written across the head of the key in big block letters was the word Safekeep.
He pointed to it. “I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure they’re smaller. This is a standard key, like to a door or a house or something. Safety deposit boxes are usually like a shoe box and so the locks are smaller. Usually it’s a small key. Plus, it would have a tag of some sort on it, saying the box number or the name of the bank.”
“So, if it’s not the key to her safety deposit box, then what’s it for? And why in the world was he burying it? Why is the key I came to find missing?”
Abigail tapped the side of the key as she stared at the hole in the ground, trying to make sense of it all. The only explanation she could think of was that he took the key she needed, and he either replaced it with this one or this key had been here as well.
But if he did take the safety deposit box key, why? Did GG send him a letter, too? Was this some kind of game from the grave? Give family members clues to a secret and see who wins first? Were they competing for some mystery prize? Maybe at the end of it all, she’d find out it was all just a ruse, something to take the edge off her death. But a competitive scavenger hunt didn’t seem like GG’s style.
Fiddling with the key, she squinted at the ground. “I’m not crazy, right? It’s weird for someone, especially an old man, to be out here burying a key. Did he swap them out? Why would he do that? No one would, unless...”
“They never wanted anyone to find it,” Kaden answered for her. “Or maybe he thought you wouldn’t know the difference. Obviously, he wants to ensure no one ever finds either this key or the other one.”
Abigail bit the inside of her cheek. Something told her this key—though not the one she came for—held the truth, more clues than she could ever imagine. But she had no idea what it was for, and she had a hard time imagining her grandfather doing anything in secret.
“I don’t know. That doesn’t seem right. I mean, he’d have to know I’d take this to the bank, and when it didn’t work, I’d know it was the wrong key. There must be a reason he put th
is here. Maybe he knew I was coming. Maybe this holds more answers than the other. There has to be some significance, but why not just come out and tell me? Why sneak around?”
“Beats me, since I have no clue what’s going on,” he said, his tone conveying his irritation. “But maybe he’s sneaking around for the same reasons you are.”
“That would mean he’s getting letters, too. And he was told to keep it a secret.”
With a sigh, Abby plopped back down on her butt. Her gaze shifted over her dirt-smudged jeans, to her filthy shoes, and the swimming pool behind her. She was not ready to spill her guts to a boy she had no reason to trust yet knowing she had to.
Her bones felt heavy, and her head ached with an oncoming headache. Her eyelids drooped, begging for sleep, and her racing mind needed a break. She wanted this hunt—whatever it was—to be over, so she could grieve her grandmother and move on with her life, even though she wasn’t sure she knew how. Though unraveling a family secret distracted her from the weight in her chest and the heaviness in her heart, facing her feelings was inevitable. The weariness in her soul only heightened the stress of bearing the burden of truth.
She needed to uncover the secret. The sooner the better. And despite her grandmother’s instructions for her to tell no one, she knew this was one request she could no longer honor.
The hunt for information pressed on her shoulders like a thousand lies until she thought she might crumple under the weight.
She took a shaky breath, then found Kaden’s eyes, locking them with her own. “I’ll tell you what’s going on now. But it’s a secret-within-a-secret. One you can’t tell anyone.”
“Okay.” He sat across from her.
His fierce gaze settled on hers. Though she was taking a risk—a giant leap—she felt in her bones she could trust him. Her secret would be safe.
With a silent prayer she was making the right choice, she took a leap of faith and jumped in the raft head-first, waiting for the waves to guide her.
THE RICH BROWN OF KADEN’S eyes mesmerized her, stealing her breath. She remembered a conversation with her grandmother—where she told Abby about the first time she met her grandfather, how she fell for him in a single moment.
It was at a little café where we first met. I spilled my drink on him in my haste to get out the door, and he spoke to me in that thick German accent of his, telling me it was fine.
I was so embarrassed though, so when he offered to buy me lunch, I accepted. He told me all about his coming to America and how in the last year he had tirelessly studied English, so he could get a job and better fit in. He never spoke of the war, but he didn’t need to. I saw the numbers on his arm, along with the scar under his neck.
When he looked me in the eye, everything else melted away. I knew nothing would ever be the same again. It was like seeing clear inside him to every secret place in his heart. It’s true what they say, the eyes are the window to the soul. All his pain, his hardships, and fears stared back at me. It’s part of the reason I never pushed him on speaking about his past. Why make him talk when I could see the scars of his past every day in the sadness of his eyes?
One day, Abigail, you’ll meet the right one. You’ll just look into his eyes and know.
At the time, Abby thought her grandmother was full of it, but now, as she spilled her truth to Kaden and told him everything from the first letter in the jewelry box to the creepy old man with the journal, Lawson’s murder, and the final letter, she sunk farther. He listened—without comment, without hesitation—he listened to her spill the events of the past week since her grandmother’s death, and somehow Abigail didn’t think her grandmother’s words that day, years ago, were so lame anymore.
Steeling herself for his reaction, she watched as he absorbed the information. She could practically see the wheels spinning in his head.
“So, let’s break this down. Be pragmatic about it,” he said, and she couldn’t help her responding grin because she had already grown to appreciate how he could switch from teasing to serious at the drop of a dime.
