CHAPTER 2 — THE BOX SHE SWORE NEVER TO OPEN
Clara locked the cottage door behind her.
Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.
She knelt beside the old wooden bed.
Reached beneath the loose floorboard.
And pulled out a weathered cedar box.
Dust covered the lid.
She hadn't touched it...
In twenty-five years.
Not since the day she buried her father.
She rested one trembling hand on the box.
"I'm sorry, Dad."
"I know what I promised."
Slowly...
She lifted the lid.
Inside lay only three things.
A faded leather journal.
A brass pocket watch.
And a small glass vial filled with dark amber liquid.
A knock suddenly echoed against the cottage door.
"Clara?"
Another housekeeper.
"Mr. Thorne is asking for everyone to gather upstairs."
Clara quickly closed the box.
"I'll be there."
Footsteps faded.
She opened the journal.
The pages were filled with careful handwriting.
Her father's.
A physician.
Long before he disappeared from the medical world.
One sentence had been underlined so many times the ink had nearly torn through the paper.
Treat the child. Never chase the disease.
Clara closed her eyes.
She remembered everything.
Twenty-five years earlier...
Doctors had given her little brother less than an hour.
Her father ignored every specialist.
Every textbook.
Every prediction.
By sunrise...
Her brother was alive.
The medical board called it impossible.
Then they accused her father of fraud.
He refused to reveal his research.
Instead...
He burned his life's work.
Except for this journal.
And one final vial.
The last one ever made.
Clara picked up the tiny bottle.
"There isn't enough for two."
She whispered.
"There never was."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Someone pounded on the front door.
Much harder this time.
"Clara!"
Julian's voice.
She froze.
He had never come to the servants' quarters before.
She quickly slipped the vial into her pocket.
Opened the door.
Julian looked broken.
"I can't find Noah's favorite blanket."
"He won't stop asking for you."
Clara's heart shattered.
"The blanket?"
"He says..."
Julian swallowed.
"...he wants to say goodbye."
She looked toward the mansion.
Then at the vial hidden inside her apron.
Finally...
She made her decision.
"I'm not coming to say goodbye."
Julian frowned.
"Then why are you coming?"
Clara looked him straight in the eyes.
"I'm coming..."
"...to ask you for permission to save your son."
Julian stared at her.
For one long second...
He almost laughed.
Then he saw something in her eyes.
Not hope.
May you like
Certainty.
END OF CHAPTER 2.
