MY SISTER SOPHIE STAYED BESIDE ME THROUGH EVERYTHING
Sophie Bennett handled the food.
Answered my phone.
Found clean clothes for the children.
Remembered things I forgot.
Our daughter Ava was seven.
Our son Ben was five.
Both of them followed me from room to room after Adrian died as if I might disappear too.
Sophie kept handing me tissues.
Water.
Coffee.
Whatever she thought I needed.
I was grateful.
I didn’t know then that every time she stood beside me, she was waiting to find out what Adrian had left behind.
After the funeral, I moved through our Bellmere house like a ghost.
I slept on Adrian’s side of the bed.
Wore his gray sweatshirt.
Played an old voicemail just to hear:
“Hey, honey. I’m on my way home.”
Then, three days after we buried him—
my phone rang.
IT WAS ADRIAN’S BOSS
His name was Mark.
He worked with Adrian at Westbridge Financial Group.
His voice sounded strained.
“Claire, I need you to come in.”
“What happened?”
“Adrian left something in his office safe.”
I sat upright.
“What?”
“It has your name on it.”
“What kind of thing?”
There was a pause.
“I don’t want to explain this over the phone.”
Twenty minutes later, I was driving toward downtown Bellmere with my hands shaking on the steering wheel.
When I reached Westbridge Financial Group, Mark was waiting.
He looked terrible.
Like he hadn’t slept.
He led me upstairs.
Unlocked Adrian’s office.
Then opened the small safe Adrian kept behind a cabinet.
Inside was a thick envelope.
Across the front, in Adrian’s handwriting:
GIVE TO CLAIRE
I stared at it.
“Why didn’t you give this to me before?”
Mark swallowed.
“Adrian specifically told me to wait until after the funeral.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
Then Mark added:
“But yesterday Sophie came here asking whether Adrian left anything in the safe.”
My entire body went cold.
“Sophie?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did she ask?”
“She wanted to know if Adrian had left papers.”
I looked down at the envelope.
Mark’s face tightened.
“That’s when I realized I’d already waited too long.”
