“Please. You’re getting married in a few hours. Don’t ruin your whole day over a car.”
I pulled away from her.
“It isn’t a car.”
My phone rang.
It was Nathan.
The second he heard my voice, he knew something was wrong.
I told him the Beetle was missing.
“I’m coming,” he said.
Twenty minutes later, I was already dressed when Nathan arrived.
I had refused to take off my wedding gown.
Somewhere inside me, I still believed I could get Grandpa’s car back and make it to the ceremony.
Then Dad’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen and went pale.
I saw Derek’s name.
“Where is he?”
Dad hesitated.
“Lake Brier.”
I grabbed my dress with both hands and headed for the door.
Dad called after me, but I didn’t stop.
Because suddenly, I understood something.
Derek hadn’t taken Grandpa’s car because he wanted it.
He had taken it because I wouldn’t give it to him.
I knew something was wrong before we even reached the water.
Then I saw white metal breaking through the surface.
Grandpa’s Beetle.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
The car that had sat in his garage for decades, the car I was supposed to leave my wedding in, was half submerged in Lake Brier.
Derek stood near the bank.
“What did you do?”
He shrugged.
“You made your choice.”
My hands started shaking.
“You put Grandpa’s car in the lake because I wouldn’t give it to you?”
His jaw tightened.
“If I can’t have it, neither can you.”
Then he pulled the keys from his pocket and tossed them toward me.
They landed in the mud beside my wedding dress.
“Go park it now, sis.”
Dad had followed us there.
I heard a short laugh behind me, like he still thought Derek’s cruelty was another stupid family prank.
Something inside me went completely still.
I bent down and picked up the muddy keys.
Derek was smiling.
He wanted me screaming.
He wanted tears.
Instead, I looked at the Beetle, remembered something Grandpa had shown me two years earlier, and turned back to my brother.
“Derek.”
“What?”
I closed my fingers around the keys.
“Did you check the trunk first?”
His smile disappeared.
“What’s in the trunk?”
Derek asked it so quickly, I knew I had finally scared him.
I didn’t answer.
I called the recovery company Nathan had found.
And less than an hour later, I watched a crane pull Grandpa’s Beetle from the lake.
Water poured from the doors.
Mud covered the white paint.
The interior was soaked.
That was when I finally cried.
I remembered Grandpa sitting beside me in the garage, correcting the way I held a wrench.
I remembered his peppermint candies in the glove compartment.
Derek had damaged something money couldn’t replace.
But the hidden compartment was still there.
The metal case inside was wet on the outside.
But when I opened it, everything inside was dry.
On top was an envelope.
Avery.
Grandpa’s handwriting.
My hands shook as I opened it.
He wrote that he had transferred the Beetle to me deliberately, knowing someone might eventually question his decision.
Then I reached the line that broke me.
“I chose you because you were the only one who loved me before you knew there was anything to inherit.”
I covered my mouth.
Under the letter were documents for an investment account Grandpa had created in my name years earlier.
It had grown far beyond what I expected, worth considerably more than the Beetle.
But I barely looked at the number.
Grandpa also wrote that he had watched me surrender things my whole life just to keep everyone else happy.
His final words were simple.
“This time, Avery, keep what is yours.”
I looked up.
Derek was staring at the documents.
Dad wasn’t laughing anymore.
And standing beside Grandpa’s ruined car in my muddy wedding dress, I finally understood why Grandpa had made me wait to open that box.
Derek stepped toward me.
“Avery, come on. I was angry. I didn’t know that stuff was in there.”
That was the problem.
He still thought the documents were what made his actions serious.
“You deliberately destroyed my car.”
Dad immediately stepped between us.
“We can handle this as a family.”
I looked at him.
“You laughed.”
His face changed.
“When my car was sinking and Derek threw the keys at me, you laughed.”
Dad lowered his eyes.
For once, I didn’t make his discomfort easier.
I documented everything.
The recovery bill.
The water damage.
Grandpa’s ownership records.
And Caleb’s written $70,000 offer from the day before.
When Derek realized I wasn’t going to quietly absorb the loss, his apology changed into panic.
“You’re really going to make me pay for this?”
Popular Posts
→- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Recently Viewed
Stories you read recently will appear here.
