CHAPTER SIX

I couldn't sleep.

I had been lying in bed for almost an hour, staring at the ceiling while the house remained unusually quiet.

Usually, the silence at night comforted me.

That night, it frightened me.

Something was wrong.

I didn't know exactly what it was, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had missed something important.

I turned onto my side and looked at the clock.

11:47 p.m.

I pulled the blanket closer to my shoulders.

Maybe I was imagining things.

Maybe the strange feeling had nothing to do with Nick.

But then I remembered what Andrew had said earlier.

"You need to start thinking about your future, Melody."

His words had stayed with me all evening.

My future.

I had spent so much time worrying about Nick, the house, church, cooking, cleaning, and following the rules that I had barely thought about what I wanted for myself.

I was eighteen.

I had finished school.

Yet I still felt as if my whole life had already been decided for me.

I sat up.

My room suddenly felt too small.

I needed water.

That was what I told myself when I quietly opened my bedroom door.

The hallway was dark.

I stepped outside and closed the door behind me.

The living room was empty.

I walked toward the kitchen, but stopped when I noticed a thin line of light beneath the door at the end of the hallway.

Nick's study.

My heart began beating faster.

I frowned.

Nick never left that light on this late.

I stood there for several seconds.

Then I heard something.

A drawer closing.

I froze.

Someone was inside.

I should have gone back to my room.

Instead, I moved closer.

The door wasn't completely closed.

There was a small gap.

I looked through it.

Nick was standing beside his desk.

His back was turned toward me.

He was holding something in his hand.

An old photograph.

I couldn't see the picture clearly, but I saw the expression on his face.

It wasn't the face I knew.

There was no anger.

No strictness.

No calm confidence.

He looked worried.

Almost afraid.

I moved slightly closer.

The floor creaked.

Nick immediately turned.

Our eyes met through the opening.

My stomach dropped.

"Melody?"

I stepped back.

"I was just getting water."

His eyes remained on me.

"At midnight?"

I glanced at the clock.

"It's not midnight yet."

He didn't smile.

"What are you doing here?"

"I told you. I wanted water."

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then Nick slowly placed the photograph on the desk.

"Go back to your room."

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

I nodded.

"Okay."

I turned away.

But something made me look back.

The photograph was still lying on the desk.

And this time, I saw it.

There were three people in the picture.

My mother.

Nick.

And a man I had never seen before.

I stared at the photograph.

Nick noticed.

"Melody."

I looked at him.

"Who is that?"

His face changed.

Only for a second.

But I saw it.

Fear.

"Go to bed."

"Nick, who is that man?"

"I said go to bed."

I had never heard that tone from him before.

It wasn't the voice of the man who had spent years explaining things to me.

It was the voice of someone trying to end a conversation before it began.

I looked at the photograph again.

"Was he part of Mom's life?"

Nick stepped toward the desk.

"Melody."

"Why have I never seen that picture?"

He picked it up.

"Because it is old."

"That's not an answer."

His jaw tightened.

For the first time, I realized something.

Nick wasn't angry because I had entered his study.

He was angry because I had seen the photograph.

"Go to bed," he repeated.

I swallowed.

Then I nodded.

"Good night."

I walked away.

I didn't go back to my room immediately.

Instead, I stood around the corner where he couldn't see me.

I heard the study door close.

Then the lock clicked.

My heart sank.

Nick had never locked that door before.

I slowly walked back to my bedroom.

I closed my door and sat on the edge of my bed.

The image of the photograph wouldn't leave my mind.

My mother.

Nick.

A stranger.

And a secret that Nick clearly didn't want me to know about.

I pulled my knees toward my chest.

Who was that man?

And why had Nick looked frightened when I asked?

I lay back down.

But sleep never came.

Because for the first time since my mother died, I began wondering if there were things about her life that nobody had ever told me.

And somehow, I had a feeling the answers were hidden behind that locked door.