Chapter 2 - The Bottle Came From Their Wedding
Emma stopped at the glass doors when Ethan said her name again.
“Please. Just give me five minutes.”
She turned.
“No. Give me one answer.”
She held up the bottle.
2015.
The year Emma and Ethan were married.
Not merely the same vintage.
The same bottle.
Emma knew because a small silver E&E seal remained beneath the label.
Their wedding venue had placed custom seals on twelve bottles from a
private case Ethan’s late father, Robert Cole, gave them as a wedding
gift.
Robert had written instructions on each bottle.
OPEN ON YOUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY.
OPEN WHEN YOU BUY YOUR FIRST HOME.
OPEN WHEN YOUR FIRST CHILD IS BORN.
One bottle had been marked:
OPEN IF YOU EVER FORGET WHY YOU CHOSE EACH OTHER.
Emma had kept that bottle in a locked cabinet in their Boston home.
That morning, she discovered it missing.
Now it sat open on Margaret’s penthouse table.
“What is it doing here?”
Ethan looked at Margaret.
Wrong move.
Again.
Margaret answered for him.
“It’s wine, Emma.”
“No. It’s ours.”
Vanessa kept recording.
Emma noticed her smile.
“Why are you enjoying this?”
Vanessa lowered the phone slightly.
“Because somebody finally noticed.”
Ethan snapped, “Vanessa, stop.”
She did not.
Emma looked at the bottle again.
The cork had been removed carefully.
A narrow strip of paper was visible inside the neck.
Emma froze.
Robert had hidden handwritten notes inside several wedding bottles.
Ethan reached for it.
Emma pulled it away.
“Don’t.”
She used a butter knife to catch the paper.
Margaret stood.
“Emma, that is enough.”
The note slid free.
Robert’s handwriting was unmistakable.
Ethan—
If this bottle is opened before your tenth anniversary, something has
gone badly wrong.
Go to Harbor Point Storage, Unit 315.
Do not let Margaret get there first.
Emma looked at the calendar on the wall.
Their tenth anniversary was tomorrow.
The bottle had been opened one day early.
Ethan went pale.
Margaret’s face hardened.
Vanessa whispered:
“There it is.”
Emma stared at her.
“You knew there was a note?”
“No.”
“Then what did you know?”
Vanessa turned her phone around.
On the screen was a video recorded earlier that afternoon.
Margaret was standing beside the same wine bottle.
And Ethan was beside her.
Margaret said:
“If Emma sees what Robert left inside, everything changes.”
Ethan answered:
“I know.”
Emma felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Then the recording continued.
May you like
Ethan said one more thing.
“That’s why she has to be gone before midnight.”
