Jake arrived just after eight.
He carried the old metal box in both hands.
It was smaller than I expected.
Gray.
Scratched.
The corners were rusted.
My father had owned it for as long as I could remember.
I had seen it in his study when I was a child.
I never knew what was inside.
Jake placed it on the kitchen table.
“There was a key taped beneath it.”
He handed me the key.
My hands were cold.
“You opened it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I thought you should.”
I nodded.
The lock resisted at first.
Then it clicked.
Inside were documents, photographs, bank receipts, and several envelopes.
I lifted the first photograph.
It showed my father standing beside Damon.
They were outside the church where Damon and I had married.
I turned it over.
The date was two days before our wedding.
Underneath the date, my father had written one sentence.
He promised me this would never happen again.
My stomach tightened.
Again?
I looked at Jake.
“Again?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
I opened the first envelope.
Inside was a letter from my father to Damon.
It was dated twenty-five years earlier.
Damon,
You told me you loved my daughter.
If that is true, then prove it by telling her the truth.
I stopped.
The next sentence was worse.
If you marry her while keeping this from her, you will spend the rest of your life afraid she will learn it from someone else.
I read the letter twice.
Jake watched me.
“What does it say?”
I handed it to him.
He read silently.
Then he looked up.
“Dad knew this was coming.”
I nodded.
There was another letter.
This one was from Marissa.
The envelope had never been opened.
My hands trembled as I unfolded the paper.
Dear Elena,
I don't know if you will ever read this.
I hope you don't.
But if you do, I want you to know that I never hated you.
I stopped.
My eyes filled.
The letter continued.
Damon told me he loved me, but he also told me he could not leave you.
He said your father knew something about him that could destroy everything.
I looked at Jake.
“What?”
He shook his head.
I continued reading.
I asked him what your father knew.
He would not tell me.
He only said that if the truth came out, you would never forgive him.
My heart began pounding.
Then came the line that changed everything.
I eventually learned that Damon had been married before.
I stared at the page.
Jake read over my shoulder.
“What?”
I could barely speak.
“Damon was married.”
Jake looked stunned.
“That can't be right.”
The letter continued.
She was alive when he met me.
My breath caught.
The room seemed to shrink.
I read the next paragraph.
He told me the marriage had been over for years, but he never divorced her.
He said there was a reason.
He said your father knew.
I lowered the letter.
Jake stared at me.
“Mom.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“But the letter says—”
“No.”
I stood.
My chair scraped the floor.
I called Damon.
He answered immediately.
“Elena?”
“Were you married before me?”
Silence.
I closed my eyes.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
Jake looked away.
I gripped the edge of the table.
“Who was she?”
“My first wife.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Are you divorced?”
Another silence.
Then Damon said, “Yes.”
“When?”
He did not answer.
“Damon.”
“Two years after we married.”
The room went still.
I could hear Jake breathing.
“You were married to her when you married me?”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
I couldn't feel my legs.
“Did you know that was illegal?”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
“I thought I had no choice.”
“No choice?”
“My father was involved.”
I stared at the wall.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“What did he have to do with your first marriage?”
Damon's voice became strained.
“She knew something about my family.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“I was young.”
“So was I.”
He went silent.
I pressed the phone against my ear.
“You married me while you were still married to someone else.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe our wedding was legal.”
“I know.”
“You let my parents believe it.”
“I know.”
“You let our children grow up believing it.”
His voice cracked.
“I know.”
I hung up.
Jake sat beside me.
“Mom.”
I covered my face.
For twenty-five years, I had believed the biggest lie in my marriage was that Damon had once loved another woman.
It wasn't.
The real lie was that the marriage I had built my life around had not existed in the form I believed.
I looked at the metal box.
There was one envelope left.
My father's handwriting covered the front.
For Elena — only after Damon tells her everything.
I opened it.
Inside was a single page.
My father had written that he had discovered Damon's first marriage shortly before my wedding.
He had confronted Damon.
Damon claimed he had been separated for years and promised that the divorce was already underway.
My father had believed him.
But then he learned the divorce had not even been filed.
My father had considered stopping the wedding.
Then Damon threatened to disappear.
He said he would leave town, and I would never know where he went.
My father made a terrible compromise.
He allowed the wedding to happen while secretly hiring an attorney to investigate the situation.
The final paragraph was underlined.
I failed to protect my daughter because I believed I could fix the problem afterward.
I never did.
I looked at the date beneath the letter.
My father had written it eleven years before he died.
He had carried the guilt to his grave.
Jake took my hand.
“Mom, there has to be more.”
I nodded.
There was.
At the bottom of the box was a small card.
No envelope.
Just six handwritten words.
Ask why his first wife disappeared.
I stared at the sentence.
Then my phone rang.
It was Damon.
I answered.
His first words were not an apology.
They were a warning.
“Don't look for her.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 7: Damon Begged Me Not to Find His First Wife, Which Was Exactly Why I Knew She Held the Missing Piece
The Dress I Chose to Celebrate Fifty Years of Becoming Everyone Else Before Finally Choosing Myself
Part 6 of 10
