THIRTY MINUTES LATER we were standing in the middle of the master bedroom looking around. “Okay, so we checked all the drawers in the dressers. The closet is empty, and the desk doesn’t have any secret doors. Now what?” Ryder asked.
“I guess we could ask Jackson if he knows if Kate left anything in the house.” I sat down on the bed and looked around. I had this overwhelming feeling there was something in this room and Kate wanted us to find it.
Shaking my head, I closed my eyes. Show me, Kate. You have to show me.
Opening my eyes again, I got up and started walking around the room. I walked over to a painting and stopped in front of it.
“Who painted this?” I asked leaning in and seeing the initials LM.
“Lizzy, I believe. She painted a lot of the pictures in the house.”
My breath caught. “Can we take it down?”
Ryder walked over and grabbed it. “Sure.”
He took it down and turned just enough for me to see the manila envelope taped to the back. My hands came up to my mouth.
“Ryder,” I whispered.
He turned the painting and saw it. “Holy shit.”
Carefully, Ryder set the picture down on the bed. We stood there and stared at the envelope. I knew the writing the moment I saw it. It was Kate’s.
My chest rose and fell with each labored breath. I had no idea what we would find in that envelope. Ryder reached for my hand and whispered, “It’s Kate’s handwriting.” He turned and looked at me. I could see the fear in his eyes, but something told me this was nothing to fear. At least I prayed like hell it wasn’t.
I smiled and squeezed his hand.
“I can’t do it, Ava. You have to see what’s in there.”
I nodded as my pulse raced. My voice was caught in my throat. “O-okay.”
With shaking hands, I gently pulled the envelope off the back of the painting. Ryder took the painting and hung it back up. Sitting down in the chair, I pulled in a deep breath while Ryder walked across the room and stared out the window.
I reached in and pulled out a stack of papers. It was legal papers … a contract.
Oh my God. Smiling, I covered my mouth with my hand as it hit me what I was looking at. It was a contract between Amour Des Lettres and Kate. My heart was pounding so loudly I was surprised Ryder couldn’t hear it.
Scanning the contract, I felt the tears building in my eyes. I had never even met Kate, but it was as if she was my own sister. The pride I was feeling was beyond anything I’d ever felt before. My goodness. She was only seventeen.
Amour Des Lettres was a design company in France. They were the one design company everyone dreamed of being in with. Even me. I interviewed for a position with them when I was in France. It was there I ran into Maurice and ended up working for him.
They wanted four of Kate’s designs. What must she had felt when she got this contract in her hands and at such a young age.
I looked up and felt the tears falling down my face. “Ryder. It’s not bad at all. It’s the most amazing thing ever.”
He spun around and his face fell when he saw me crying. “Why are you crying? And smiling?”
Pressing my lips together, I tried to contain the sobs I wanted to let out. My heart was happy and so sad at the same time. Kate had the brightest future in front of her, and in one moment it was taken from her.
Once I felt like I could talk, I handed him the contract. He took it and looked at it with a confused expression.
“What is this? Who is Amour Des Lettres?”
I wiped the tears away. “They are a design company in France. One of the best. They’re known for their wedding dresses mostly. They sell for over thirty thousand a piece. They wanted four of Kate’s designs.”
His eyes lifted to mine. “W-what?”
Nodding my head, I smiled and let out a sob. “Ryder, this was huge. I can’t even imagine how over the moon Kate must have been,” I said with a giggle.
Ryder shook his head while slowing sitting down. “Kate had an opportunity to design for this company?”
I nodded my head. “It looks like she had submitted a few designs that they wanted, but here, on this page they are offering her a full time designer position. In France.”
“Holy shit,” Ryder whispered. “She didn’t sign it.” He snapped his head up and looked at me.
I shrugged my shoulders. “The baby maybe?”
Ryder bent over and took a few deep breaths. Then I saw his body begin to shake and I knew he was upset. Jumping up, I fell to the floor in front of him.
“She had her whole life ahead of her. Her whole damn life. I don’t fucking understand why this happened. Fuck!” he yelled out and my heart broke even more.
I took the contract from his hand and crawled onto his lap. He buried his face into my neck and held me like he was going to lose me.
Nothing was said for the longest time as we just sat there. I peeked over to the clock and cleared my throat. “We need to get going if we want to be on time for dinner with Jackson.”
Ryder nodded. The look in his eyes was empty.