“He came into my life looking for security. He gave me something that money had never been able to buy. Make sure he is never afraid again.”
That’s when I started crying.
Not because I had inherited something.
But because Richard knew the nastiest truth about how our relationship had started…
and yet I believed that the way it ended mattered more.
Three months later, I moved into the small house by the lake.
I kept the wooden box on my bedroom dresser.
The brass key is still inside, although I don’t need it anymore.
And every time I remember Richard saying that I would get exactly what I deserved, I finally understand what he meant.
He didn’t leave me his fortune.
He left me a home,
a future, and one last reminder that sometimes love can start for the wrong reason…
and still become something real.
