Chapter 15
Three years after Father’s death became complicated all over again, I found Davina’s engagement ring in an old drawer.
I thought she had taken it.
Apparently not.
No note.
Just ring.
I sent it through her aunt.
No message.
Weeks later, I received a small package back.
Inside was Father’s old red medicine bottle.
Empty.
My chest tightened.
Where had she kept it?
After Father died, Davina recovered the correct bottle from Rowan Price’s effects through Lucian.
He gave it to her.
Not as punishment.
As reminder.
She carried it for years.
Through meeting me.
Dating me.
Accepting my proposal.
Every anniversary.
Every dinner with Mother.
A physical secret inside a private drawer somewhere.
Now she returned it.
I almost destroyed it.
Then stopped.
Not because it was sacred.
Because Mother might know what she wanted done.
On a lucid morning, I showed her.
She stared.
“That ugly thing.”
I laughed.
Father said the same.
“Keep?”
“No.”
“Throw away?”
“Yes.”
So I did.
No display.
No locked archive.
No lesson preserved in glass.
May you like
Just an empty bottle in the trash.
The truth remained without needing the object.
