Chapter 4: The Box
I opened the box again after the lawyer left.
Inside, besides the will and the key, was a letter from Thomas.
I read it with tears blurring the words.
Dear Nancy,
You broke my heart at seventeen. I waited fifty years to break yours.
I knew I was dying. I knew you would come back to this town one day. I made sure the hospital called you to my room. I made sure you felt sorry for me. I made sure you said yes.
The marriage was real. The will is real. But so are the debts I hid. The lawsuits from old business partners. The tax problems I never solved. You now own all of it.
Welcome to my world, wife.
Enjoy the trap you walked into so willingly.
— Thomas
I screamed.
The sound tore out of me like something wild.
I had married him because I thought it was kindness.
He had married me because he wanted to destroy me.
The key in the box opened a safety deposit box at the local bank. Inside were more documents — loan papers, court judgments, hidden liabilities — all now in my name because I had signed the marriage certificate.
Thomas had planned this for years.
He had waited until he was dying so I would feel pity instead of suspicion.
And I had fallen for it completely.
I sat on the floor of my small house with the papers around me and cried until I had no tears left.
May you like
The boy I had loved at seventeen had become a monster at seventy-three.
And I was now trapped in the cage he had built for me.
