Chapter 2
But then my phone vibrated.It was my older brother, Ryan.
“Where are you?”
I paused before replying.
“Outside my house.”
Three dots appeared.
Then:
“What do you mean, outside?”
I told him everything.
He didn’t ask questions.
He simply said:
“Don’t go back inside. I’m coming.”
Forty minutes later, Ryan arrived.
He took one glance at me and immediately called a nearby hotel.
I spent the remainder of the night there.
But before sunrise, I received another message.
From Daniel.
“Come back. We need to talk.”
I returned with Ryan beside me.
Daniel opened the door.
He seemed exhausted.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I overreacted.”
Then he spotted something resting on the porch.
A large cardboard box.
His name was printed across the top.
Daniel’s expression suddenly changed.
He stared at it for several seconds.
Then he looked at me.
“Where did you get that?”
I didn’t answer.
Because whatever was inside that box was about to reveal a secret his mother had kept buried for years.
And when Daniel finally opened that box, the argument from the night before suddenly seemed like the smallest issue in the house.
Daniel quietly stepped onto the porch.
“What is that?”
Ryan crossed his arms.
“You tell us.”
Daniel looked at me.
“I don’t understand.”
May you like
“You will,” I said.
He crouched beside the box.
