I turned the key left.
The lock opened immediately.
“Not one word,” I told Wade.
His mouth twitched despite everything. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I pulled the padlock free and wrapped my fingers around the bottom edge of the corrugated door. For a moment I could not lift it. It was not especially heavy; the problem was the small brass key still pinched between two fingers and Randall’s ring on a chain beneath my blouse, resting cold against my sternum. I had put it there without deciding to. I had told myself it was because I did not want to lose it.
Jonah pushed away from the wall. “Mom.”
“I’ve got it.”
“I know. Move your hand.”
The door rattled upward with his help, metal clattering over our heads. The sound seemed indecently loud. I expected darkness behind it, perhaps a stack of anonymous cardboard boxes, something dusty and neglected enough to match the word storage.
