Chapter 2: The Brass Key

The letter slipped from my hands.

“My sister found me,” Jack had written.

“Her name is Claire.

Please don’t blame her for keeping our secret.”

I stared at the woman.

“Jack told me he had no family.”

“He believed that,” Claire whispered.

“We were separated when we were very young.

I only found him after seeing his name in a hospital appeal.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Because finding me uncovered something else.

Something he feared would put you and the children at risk.”

My stomach tightened.

“What could be worse than losing him?”

Claire reached into her bag and placed a small brass key on the table.

“Jack didn’t spend every dollar on treatment,” she said.

“He moved something into your name before his d3ath.”

“We had nothing left.

I borrowed against this house.”

“I know.

That’s why he made me promise to wait.”

Then my phone lit up.

It was the bank.

The man on the line asked me to confirm my identity before saying, “Your husband left instructions for us to contact you if anyone presented his key.”

Claire went pale.

Before I could answer, someone pounded on my front door and shouted Jack’s name.

Claire grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t open it.

They know you have the letter.”