“You’re going to marry mum?” Valarian squealed, hurting my ears, his little eyes lighting up as he danced
and wiggled in his seat. “Well, I hope so, that is why we are going t o the jewelers. We need to find her a
ring, “Valen claps his hands excitedly.
“Oh, I know. What about grandma’s rings? Grandma had heaps,” Valarian says. “Her mother?” I ask him,
a little confused. But he shakes his head. 28 “No, Grandma Valarie, your mum. They are in the storage
shed, mum has where she keeps all grandma’s stuff,” he says.
“I don’t remember seeing a jewelry box in there,” I tell him. “No, mum packed it in a box after I dropped it,
and had all my grandma’s “Yep, they didn’t take anything, just wrote rogue whore on the brick walls,
Aunty Macey scared them off,” “Language! And you remember this?” I ask him.
“Ah, it was only last year, when mum got her 5 star rating for the hotel, just before Christmas. Mum
thought it was another Hotel owner. Aunty Macey smacked one i n the head with her bat when they tried
to get in the office area,” Valarian laughs, making a swinging motion with his hands before he shrugs.
“And she didn’t call the police?” I ask him. oc “She did, they laughed at her and said it was her problem,
so mum moved the jewelry from the safe, said it would be the first place they looked for valuables,” oc
“And how do you know where she hid it?” I ask and Valarian drops his head.
coa “I accidentally knocked a box over and broke the jewelry box. Mum spent hours crying, trying to put it
back together with glue. She wouldn’t stop crying, she said it was Grandma favorite possession,”
Valarian tells me, making my brows furrow DO “You made her cry?” I ask him.
“Yes, but I don’t think it was the jewelry box. I think it was because I lost a stone out of one of the rings
when it smashed. I t was Grandma’s mother’s wedding ring.
She said it was a priceless family heirloom, and the jewelry box was given t o grandma, so it must be the
ring, because the box looked ugly,” he says with a shrug while looking down at his hands in his lap. 3 OS
“Do you think we can sneak in the back way?” I ask him.
“Backway of where?” DC poca “The storage shed,” I tell him. “Like a secret agent?” he asks, and I
chuckle when my phone starts ringing again. BE “You should answer it. She is probably freaking out.”
Valarian states, and I sigh and quickly answer it.
Everly’s voice comes through the speaker. “Ah, where are you taking our son?” she asks. Valarian
snickers. “Father-son outing. Where are you?” “I just got home. Zoe went into heat, so I had to ring
Marcus. Luckily, Macey is going to take Casey for the night because I feel exhausted today.
Bloody wet weather always makes me tired!” “Well, we should be home before dinner,” I tell her before
turning the car around at the roundabout and heading for the storage locker. oc pooo G 3 “Where are
you taking him? It’s pouring down, Valen.
Not suitable weather to be out and about. Over the radio, I heard it’s going to get worse overnight too,”
Everly screeches through the phone. “Father-son outing,” I tell her, and she growls.
I glance at Valarian in the mirror before pressing a finger to my lips. He giggles and nods. “Fine, I will
start dinner, I guess. Oh, can you grab more milk and coffee on your way home? Oh, and Oreo ice
cream?” “Oreo ice cream?” “Yeah, I feel like ice cream,” “But it’s raining?” I ask her.
“Just get the ice cream, Valen!” she says. “Fine, I will grocery shop too, then. I love you,” I tell her. “I love
you too. Don’t forget my ice cream, “Everly says, hanging up. og The rain had eased off a little by the
time we reached the hotel, but the car park was flooded, and the wind was horrendous.
I drove around the back of the Hotel, pulling up behind the functions room where the storage locker was
before grabbing the spare key from my glove box. The trees were bending over from the wind, the sound
of the wind whistled past the car, and the storage locker door rattled loudly.
Yeah, I couldn’t take Valarian out in that! I sigh, not wanting t o get out in this weather either. “Yellow
Box?” I ask while turning to look at Valarian sitting in the back. “Yes, unless mum moved it, maybe ring
and ask her.
It is in the brown cupboard. I t has boxes stacked in front of it.” I nod, turning the car off. “No, this is a
surprise. You can’t tell your mother.” I remind him, and he nods. I hold my pinkie out to him. “Pinkie,
promise?” “I can keep a secret,” Valarian whines, but wraps his little pinkie around mine. “And it isn’t a
secret.
It’s a surprise. And you don’t keep secrets from us,” “Isn’t that the same thing?” Valarian asks. “No,
because I will be telling her, well, I will be asking her, so it is a surprise.” a “Sounds like a secret to me!”
Valarian says, and I don’t bother arguing with him.
The kid would win. “Wait here. I don’t want you getting wet. The last thing I need is your mother going off
at me for getting you sick,” I tell him before shoving the door open and rushing out toward the storage
locker.
It took me a good thirty minutes of moving boxes before I got to the I cupboard, and I found the yellow
box he mentioned at the bottom of it. Taking the lid off, I nearly choked on my spit as I pulled it out. Tears
brimmed in my eyes a SI chuckled.
I always wondered what happened to that ugly thing. I had made it in wood class the first year of high
school and gave it to my father. Opening the lid, I see my name burned into the wood. Dad must have
given it to her. I thought my father threw it out.
It had a huge, gaudy looking wooden flower on top. We were making mother’s day boxes. Growing up, I
always hated mother’s day because I didn’t have mine around. So I always gave them to dad. However,
it was definitely broken and I could see Everly had used superglue to put the splintered wood back
together. Some bits were still broken and had gaps where she couldn’t glue the pieces back together in
it.
Biting my lip, I now knew it wasn’t the jewelry Everly was upset about. It was because she knew mum
treasured the box she kept the jewelry in. She had to have known because she wouldn’t have put it back
together, because it was the ugliest box I had ever seen and definitely not a work of art.
Suddenly I was glad I am an Alpha because I was not going anywhere with m y carpentry skills, that’s for
sure. She kept it, all these years and she kept it. I chuckled before grabbing a towel and wrapping it
around the box before tucking it under my arm and rushing back to the car. Opening the car, I placed i
ton the passenger seat before rushing back to lock the shed back up.
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