Page 71 of Whatever Will Be

The case is popped open and Abigail’s perfect handwriting stares back at me from the note she wrote years ago.

Her note is not what interests me right now.

What I came to see is on the other side in my sister’s handwriting. Three numbers in a column.

12

6

23

Those numbers meant nothing to me at a casual glance.

But Danny’s birthday is May 12.

My birthday is August 6.

Jules’s birthday is March 23.

There’s a safe in Jules’s closet and Jules had a secret.

She left this on her dresser amid her precious treasures.

It can’t be a coincidence.

Trent is waiting at the top of the stairs when I run back up.

“Come on.” I pull him into Jules’s room.

With my first try the safe remains stubbornly closed and I sigh with frustration.

Trent peers over my shoulder. “Touch the buttons one at a time, Gretch. Instead of pressing the number twelve at once, press one, then two, and so on.”

He’s right. The instant my finger leaves the last digit, there’s a tiny ding and the flap flies open. I have no idea what to expect inside. What I find is only one tiny object.

A single USB flash drive.

I hold it in the palm of my hand, my heart pounding. “There’s no USB port on my laptop.”

He nods. “There’s one on mine. I’ll be right back.”

Trent is very fast. Within two minutes he dashes down the street and back again.

I meet him in the front yard and wordlessly we go to my room and shut the door.

I’m unable to sit still while Trent powers up his laptop and inserts the flash drive. He stares at the screen.

“What is it?” I scramble to his side on the bed.

He points. “One file. It’s a big one. A video.”

I swallow hard. Breathe deeply.

“Play it,” I tell him.

15

Jules

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