At Her Sister’s Wedding, My Best Friend Caught the Bouquet… Then Walked Straight to My Table!
Chapter 3
The next morning, Emily and Sophie drove to the old Lane family house.
It had been empty for years.
Sophie still had the key.
The house stood at the edge of town behind a rusted iron gate.
Emily remembered coming there as a teenager.
She had never known that her mother had ever visited.
“Which door?” Emily asked.
Sophie pointed upstairs.
“Dad said the letter was hidden in his study.”
They entered.
Dust covered the furniture.
Old photographs lined the walls.
Sophie led Emily into the study.
The room smelled like old paper and wood.
She opened a desk drawer.
Nothing.
Another.
Nothing.
Emily searched the bookshelf.
Then she noticed a loose panel.
She pulled it away.
Inside was a small metal box.
Sophie stared.
“That’s it.”
Emily opened it.
A letter.
A cassette.
And an old wedding photograph.
Emily picked up the photograph.
It showed her parents.
But standing beside them was Sophie’s father.
And someone else.
Emily didn’t recognize him.
She turned the picture over.
A date.
Twenty years earlier.
And one sentence.
What happened between us must never reach the children.
Emily looked at Sophie.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily opened the letter.
It was addressed to Sophie’s father.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Her mother’s.
Thomas,
I know you think the truth would destroy them.
Maybe it would.
But one day, they will need to know why we separated their families.
Emily’s heart pounded.
“What families?”
Sophie read over her shoulder.
The letter continued.
The accident was not an accident.
They both froze.
“What accident?” Sophie whispered.
Emily read further.
We were not supposed to survive that night.
The letter ended there.
No explanation.
Emily looked at the cassette.
“Maybe it’s on this.”
They found an old recorder.
Sophie pressed play.
Static.
Then Emily’s mother’s voice.
“If Emily ever hears this, I need her to know one thing.”
A pause.
“She was loved.”
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
Her mother’s voice continued.
“I didn’t leave because I wanted to.”
Static.
“I left because someone threatened her.”
Emily grabbed Sophie’s arm.
“Who?”
The recording continued.
“If anything happens to me, tell Emily…”
Static swallowed the next few words.
They couldn’t hear.
Sophie hit rewind.
Again.
Static.
Then one phrase became clear.
“…the man at the wedding.”
Emily frowned.
“What man?”
The tape continued.
“He knows what your father did.”
Then silence.
The recording ended.
Sophie stared at Emily.
“What did your father do?”
Emily shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Sophie noticed another photograph inside the box.
It showed four teenagers.
Two boys.
Two girls.
Emily recognized her mother.
The other woman was Sophie’s mother.
The two girls stood beside two boys.
One was Sophie’s father.
The other was a young man Emily didn’t know.
On the back:
The four of us promised we’d never tell.
Emily looked at Sophie.
“What happened to the other man?”
Sophie shook her head.
“I’ve never seen him.”
Then they heard a car outside.
A black sedan stopped by the gate.
A man stepped out.
He looked toward the house.
Sophie went pale.
“Who is that?”
Emily asked.
“I don’t know.”
The man raised his phone.
Photographed the house.
Then drove away.
Emily’s heart began racing.
Sophie looked at her.
“We need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because my father always said one thing about this house.”
“What?”
Sophie grabbed the box.
“Anyone looking for this house isn’t looking for us.”
Emily stared.
“Then what are they looking for?”
Sophie whispered:
“The truth your mother died protecting.”
