Alex stared at the key as if the lock had betrayed him.
On my laptop screen, his breath clouded in the cold while his family stood behind him in the driveway.
Lauren held the champagne bottle against her red coat.
Megan had stopped smiling entirely.
My phone vibrated across Chloe’s coffee table.
ALEX.
I let it ring.
He tried the key again.
Nothing.
Then he stepped away from the door, pulled out his phone, and called a second time.
Chloe sat beside me without speaking.
She had been quiet ever since I arrived with my hospital bag, my laptop, and the folded envelope Ian had given me.
“Are you going to answer?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
On the security feed, Alex’s father walked up and inspected the lock.
His mother said something I couldn’t hear clearly.
Megan pointed toward the side of the house.
They still thought this was a mechanical problem.
They still thought someone would fix it for them.
Alex called a third time.
This time I answered.
“Hey,” I said.
There was a pause.
“Where are you?” he asked.
His voice was too controlled.
“At work.”
Another pause.
Behind him on the video, Lauren shifted from one foot to the other.
Alex lowered his voice.
“Did you do something to the lake-house locks?”
I looked at Chloe.
She raised one eyebrow.
“What makes you ask?”
“The key isn’t working.”
“My key?”
“Our key,” he corrected.
There it was.
A small sentence, but it told me more than he intended.
The lake house had never been ours legally.
My grandmother left it to me before Alex and I were married.
His name was not on the deed.
He knew that.
We had discussed it when we updated our estate paperwork two years earlier.
But somewhere along the way, permission had turned into entitlement.
I kept my voice calm.
“That’s strange.”
“Yeah, it is strange.” His irritation sharpened.
“Did you have someone change them?”
“Why are you there, Alex?”
Silence.
On my screen, I watched him turn away from his family.
“What?”
“You told me the trip was canceled.”
His face changed.
It was subtle at first.
His jaw tightened.
