I waited for Caleb in the parking lot of the old cathedral two blocks from where my mother once lived a place she never returned to, but never let me forget, even when her memory blurred.
The key was in my coat pocket, the weight of it pressing against my thigh like it had grown heavier with knowledge I hadn’t yet earned, but already feared.
I didn’t ask why she hid it.
I just knew she had.
Because my mother never trusted the world with anything sacred least of all her truth and now I was here, chasing down ghosts while still carrying the scent of Edward on my skin.
The rain had stopped, but the sky remained bruised and gray, like the heavens were holding their breath, waiting to see whether I would finally open the door my mother had always left locked.
When Caleb’s car pulled up, I
