"What’s that?" She pointed to the box.
"Devlin came in this afternoon to go over some paperwork in regards to the inheritance. The box is part of some of the things my grandfather left for me."
"What’s the matter?" Her eyes shone with nervousness.
"Nothing's the matter. I got some information today and it…well, it concerns you." To ease the worried look on her face, I grabbed the legal documents and handed them to her. "Read these over."
She sat down and began reading. After ten minutes, which felt like hours, she looked up from the papers, her eyes wide.
"Aidan, I can’t…I mean…these need to be changed." She thrust the papers onto my desk.
"There is nothing I can do right now." I shrugged. "It’s not that big of a deal. I do need you to sign the papers though." Turning to the page requiring her signature, I pointed to the open document. "Sign here and here."
Shaking her head, she refused. "No."
With a sigh, I ran my hand through my hair. "Lilli, you have to or the document is invalid. You have to sign acceptance or—"
Fine." She slid the papers in front of her and held her hand out for a pen. Once I placed the pen in her hand, she signed, slapped the pen back onto the desk and stood before me. "Now, get new papers drawn up and take it all back." She said firmly and started for the door.
"Wait!" Placing my hand on her shoulder, I moved to block her exit. "There are other things...I want you to see them with me."
"You haven’t seen them yet?" Her brow wrinkled.
"No. I just found out about them today. There is a safe hidden in the bar." Taking a step away from her, I stretched my hand toward her, requesting that she to do this with me. "I know that it is late. But please, come with me?"
Lilli tangled her fingers with mine and we walked to the bar. Once behind the bar, I unlocked the cabinet and found the hidden black button. I pressed the button and heard a clicking sound coming from behind us. Turning around, I noticed the large painting next to the pool table slide into the ceiling.
"That was so James Bond." Lilli exclaimed with a laugh. I grinned.
The safe had an alphanumeric pad. As instructed, I typed in Isobel and hit the large red button. With a click, the door popped open. I peered inside, noticing a few black, fire-safe boxes. Pulling them out, I sat them on the pool table. There were five boxes varying in size.
We started with the largest. It contained a stack of letters, deeds, legal documents and an old photo album.
"Oh, wow." Lilli ran her fingers over the aged cover. "They don’t make them like this unless you go to a specialty shop."
She was right. It was brown canvas with leather binding. You could smell the age of it. I opened the album, revealing a picture of my great grandmother, Murron, my grandmother, Isobel, and my mother, Eliza, on the inside cover. Three separate pictures with their names, along with the day they wed each Aidan Iverson, written next to each picture, from my great grandfather to father.
Turning pages, we found baby pictures of my Grandfather leading up to my own baby pictures.
"Is that you?" Lilli slid on top of the pool table and leaned over my arm.
"Yeah, it is." Smiling, I turned the album over to her. "You should continue it."
She looked up at me with wide eyes and put her head back down to go through the pictures. For a moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She's just so beautiful.
Finally able to pull eyes off my wife, I moved on to the next box. This one was thicker than the others. When I opened it, I found it held multiple compartments. It took me a moment to figure out how to access each one. Once I did, I was a little taken back.
"I thought all the jewelry was in safety deposit boxes." I mumbled.
As I went through all of the jewelry, I remembered seeing some of this on my mother when I was younger.
"It was their jewelry." I whispered. A tear slip over my cheek as I lifted the gold necklace that had graced my mother’s long neck. Memories of watching her put the necklace on, or fingering the chain, flooded me.
Lilli’s placed her hand against my cheek, wiping away the tears and pulling me away from my thoughts. Her face was so full of compassion I couldn’t help but wrap my hand around the nape of her neck, pulling her into my arms. Our foreheads pressed together and she embraced me without hesitation, rubbing soothing circles against my back.
"My mother wore this frequently. I…I can remember it."