For six years of marriage, Calvin and I had always gone back to our own hometowns separately for Memorial Day.
This year, I decided to visit the cemetery in the Lyons family's hometown. I wanted to surprise him.
But after searching for what felt like forever, the only thing I found was a small, low grave marker etched with the Lyons family name.
A villager told me what it was.
"That's the Lyons' child who died a few years back. Poor little thing."
Calvin had mentioned it before. His older brother's posthumous child was born the same day as our son. One didn't survive. The other grew up strong and healthy.
That was why, every year, Calvin brought our son back to pay respects at the cemetery. To ease his sister-in-law's grief over losing her daughter.
Standing before that small grave, I felt an inexplicable tightness in my chest. On impulse, I hired someone to fix it up.
But the first shovel of dirt turned up a Longevity Locket.
Identical to the one I'd lost in the delivery room five years ago.
...
I froze. My hand reached for it before my mind caught up.
I turned it over. Eight characters were engraved on the back.
Safe and sound, blessed with fortune.
The brushwork of the engraving was exactly the same as the one that had gone missing.
At the time, Calvin had blamed himself for being careless. Said he must have lost it while showing off the baby to relatives.
Later, when Lola heard what happened, she'd given us a gold Guardian Locket as a replacement. A gift for the child, she'd said.
Logic told me this had nothing to do with me.
My Spencer Lyons was smart and well-behaved. My parents said he'd inherited the Simmons genes, and they'd poured everything into raising him.
How could he possibly not be mine?
But the locket clung to my palm like it was fused there. I couldn't put it down.
Almost without thinking, I sent my father a message.
Dad, when you get a chance, could you pull the security footage from the maternity hospital the year Spencer was born?
I found a Longevity Locket at a cemetery in Calvin's hometown. It's identical to the one you had blessed at the temple.
The moment I hit send, a familiar little voice drifted from behind me.
"Mommy, carry me!"
I thought Spencer had spotted me. The knot between my brows loosened instantly.
God, I was being ridiculous. Letting a locket make me doubt that the child I'd raised with my own hands wasn't mine.
But when I turned around, I saw him nestled in Lola James's arms.
And standing beside them was my husband, Calvin Lyons.
Lola shot Calvin a helpless smile.
"Look at our boy. He's getting so big and he's still this clingy."
Calvin's eyes were swimming with tenderness. He wrapped an arm around the two of them.
"He gets it from his dad. I can't stand being away from you either."
Calvin Lyons. Couldn't stand being away from someone.
In six years of marriage, he'd spent half his time at the office.
His excuse? Helping his father-in-law lighten the workload.
After Spencer was born, whatever romance we'd once had dissolved like foam on water.
He could be hospitalized for a week with appendicitis, and I wouldn't hear a word about it.
I could be in a car accident, calling him over and over, and never get through.
His favorite line was that distance kept things beautiful.
Things that burned too hot, things he wasn't sure he could hold onto, he never bothered trying to keep.
He always asked me to give him a little more time.
I'd thought this Memorial Day trip would be my chance to finally break through the wall he kept between us.
Now I saw how laughable that was.
He didn't bring me because someone else had been at his side all along.
Sure enough, a voice confirmed it.
"The young Lyons couple is here. If you're curious about that grave, you can ask them yourself."
I stood frozen beneath the shade of the trees, cold seeping through every inch of me.
Couple?
"Aren't they brother-in-law and sister-in-law?"
The man patted down the mound of earth with his shovel.
"Seven years ago, sure. Then the older Lyons boy died in a car crash, and the two of them got together."
"Word is he's done real well for himself. Runs some big company out in the city. Plans to move the whole family there once the holiday's over."
