Chapter 1 - The Buried Secret
I stared at the instructions on the small card.
My hands were shaking so violently I could barely read the words.
James had written down the exact coordinates of my parents' old backyard.
He told me to dig beneath the roots of the ancient oak tree.
That was where we had buried a small metal lockbox on the morning of our wedding.
It was a silly romantic gesture we thought no one else knew about.
I grabbed a trowel from my garage and drove across town to the old property.
The house was abandoned and overgrown with weeds.
I knelt in the dirt and began digging frantically near the massive tree roots.
My trowel finally struck something hard and metallic.
I pulled the rusted lockbox from the damp earth.
I used a rock to smash the brittle padlock until it snapped open.
Inside was our old wedding photograph and a sleek, modern smartphone.
The screen suddenly lit up with an incoming call.
I answered the phone with trembling fingers.
May you like
A deep, familiar voice whispered my name.
Before James could say another word, a heavy hand grabbed my shoulder from behind.
