Chapter 1: The Weight of What She Carried
Ruth had wrapped that gift herself, and she carried it across the garden the way a person carries something she has been saving for years.
It was a bright morning at the outdoor brunch.
A white canopy shaded the long tables, and beyond it a stone fountain sparkled in the sun.
Champagne glasses glittered on the tablecloths.
Nothing in the garden had any lettering on it.
Ruth, sixty-five, round-faced, her hair silver, in a pale blue dress, held a small box tied with a ribbon.
She stopped in front of a table where Lauren, thirty-eight, sharp-featured, with long straight hair, stood with a champagne glass in one hand.
Beside her stood Gavin, forty, square-jawed, in a white vest, smiling and holding a small box of his own.
Lauren glanced at the gift and smiled the way she smiled at things she did not plan to keep.
"Mom, you really shouldn't have."
She turned the box over once, politely.
"It's sweet, just a little old-fashioned for us."
Ruth looked at her.
Her face did not change.
"I see."
She lifted the lid.
Inside lay a small card with nothing printed on it, and beneath the card, a ring of golden keys.
"Then I'll give them to someone who will use them."
She closed the lid, stepped across the grass to the edge of the fountain, and held out the keys to a young woman in a white dress who had been waiting there.
The young woman took them with both hands.
Lauren's champagne glass stopped halfway to her lips.
She turned and stared.
"Those were for us?"
Beside her, Gavin looked down at the table.
The box he had been holding lay open and empty in his hands.
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What did those golden keys unlock — and who is the young woman in white that Ruth chose instead?
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