The Unfolded Truth

Two years.

It had been two, long years since we lost our only son, Kaden. He was sixteen years old and was getting ready to move onto the eleventh grade when he'd suddenly disappeared one night. Even though all of his belongings were still in his room the night he disappeared, I refused to believe that my son was truly gone. There was no way that my innocent son who had perfect grades and participated in every sport left this world, who would want to hurt my son?

I asked myself this question every day, sometimes the question would linger inside of my head as my heart ached for an answer. When he first disappeared, everyone was doing everything that they could to bring Kaden home. My husband and I got a search party together, which lasted for weeks; but when people began to realize we wouldn't find Kaden, they stopped showing up one by one until it was just my husband and me. The agents who were working his case stopped calling and reassuring us that they'd find him. Everyone slowly started to give up; everyone except me.

My husband grew distant from me, claiming that it pained him to see his wife every day knowing that his only child was gone. There was an empty void in the house and the only thing that could fill it was Kaden's presence. My husband, Eric, tried his best to stay strong, but I knew he was hurting just as much as I was. He never really discussed Kaden, there was a time he'd asked me to stop bringing up our son. Those words coming from my husband's mouth, someone who I expected to be able to go to when I needed, broke another piece of me, but I left it alone and hadn't mentioned Kaden in almost ten months.

Heavy footsteps approaching the kitchen distracted me from the thoughts that raced through my mind as I washed the dishes. I dried my hands on the rag that was sitting on the countertop and turned to face Eric, who had just got home from work. I smiled and approached him as he returned a weak, tired smile. Eric was a tall, six-foot-four, fit man and never missed a daily workout. His hair was always neatly brushed into waves that covered his head and his freshly groomed beard never had a hair out of place.

"Hey baby, how was work?" I asked. Eric ran his own business as a contractor, building houses. Sometimes he'd be gone for weeks at a time trying to finish projects.

Eric wrapped his long around arm my waist, placing a fast kiss on my lips before he pulled back, "We got a lot of work done today. Finally finished the house down on the Bay. The buyers should be ready to move in about two weeks."

"That's exciting! Are you hungry? I'm almost finished with dinner." I turned around and walked to the stove, taking the lid off the pot full of pasta noodles to mix them up so that they wouldn't stick to the bottom.

"I'm about to take a shower then I'll be back down for dinner." He mumbled tiredly. I hummed in response and continued to fix our dinner for the night. Lately, things had been off with us and I knew that he knew it too, but he ignored it, just like he ignored almost everything else. Eric blocked the world out after Kaden's disappearance, putting more time into his work to avoid the painful reality of life.

As we ate dinner half an hour late, we sat across from one another and had little to no talk as usual. There was never really any real conversation anymore, so I used the silence to imagine that my son was sitting next to me in his spot at the table. I could hear his laughter and see his smile as he talked about his day at school and how practice went afterward. His curly hair would bounce effortlessly each time he moved his head and his light brown eyes always seemed to of had a twinkle to them.

I sighed and pushed my chair away from the table, picking up our dirty dishes before making way to the kitchen. I cleaned the dining room and the kitchen alone as usual before I began to make my way upstairs to our bedroom. As I walked down the hallway towards our room, there was the same burning desire to stop at Kaden's room and peek inside. I ignored it because I knew it would only result in me being upset for the rest of the night and Eric wouldn't be any help to me.

Once I opened the door to our bedroom, I noticed that Eric was now dressed in outside clothes. He had on a new pair of dark-wash jeans and a gray, long-sleeved thermal shirt. I glanced at the clock that was on the nightstand beside our bed; it was eight o'clock.

"Where are you going?" I tried not to sound upset, but it was clear that I was.

Eric looked up from his phone before shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans, "I'm going to the bar with Freddy. I won't be too long."

He left the room without another word and moments later, I heard the front door open and close. Disappointment surged through my body as tears burned my eyes. I didn't mind Eric going out with his friends, but this had turned into an everyday thing for him. He always said that he wouldn't be gone long but always came back home late at night, sometimes it'd be after midnight. I was almost used to him leaving, but sometimes all I wanted to do was spend the rest of the day with my husband.

I looked at the laundry basket that was full of clean clothes and decided that it was best to focus on something else for the moment. I dumped the clothes onto the bed and spent about fifteen minutes neatly folding them into organized piles. I picked up a pile of Eric's shirts and brought them over the dresser where all of his work clothes were. Since all of the drawers were already full, I bent down to the last drawer and opened it, seeing that there was nothing but a few thermal shirts. I moved the shirts over to make room for the clean clothes, but something caught my attention. There was an unfamiliar phone that was hidden underneath the shirts, along with a little black book.

I noticed that the notebook had a tab coming from the back of the book to the front cover, almost like it was there to keep it closed. I lifted the tab only to learn that it wouldn't budge. That's when I noticed there was a three-number combination lock on the front cover, keeping the tab from opening. I turned my attention to the cellphone and pressed the side button, expecting the phone to be dead, but it immediately turned on and I could see that the battery was half full. What the hell was this? Eric never mentioned anything about having a second phone before and as many times as I went into his dresser, the black book had never been there.

I tried to guess the passcode to the phone, but I didn't succeed. I tried his mother's birthday, our wedding day, and even his birthday but none of them worked. I sighed loudly and left the room to pour myself a glass of wine in the kitchen. As I leaned against the countertop sipping the cool wine, I found myself staring at a picture of Kaden on the wall. About a minute later, I set the glass in the sink and hurried back upstairs to the bedroom. I picked the phone up again and entered Kaden's birthday; it was the correct passcode.

As I searched through the phone, I didn't find anything interesting, only old business messages and emails from clients. Just as I was getting ready to turn the phone off, I decided to check the notes on the phone. There was nothing in the notes either, but I scrolled to the very bottom, passing hundreds of notes until it wouldn't scroll anymore. There was a note that stood out to me, the title being named "Book." I clicked on the note and saw that there were only three numbers inside of it: 016

I dropped the phone and picked the notebook up before entering the three numbers. I heard a click and I easily pulled the tab out of place, opening the book. Nothing was interesting in the first couple of pages, just some private notes about details of Eric's life I never knew about. I flipped a few pages and something fell out of the book, onto the floor. I picked up the paper and turned around, realizing that it was a check for twenty-thousand dollars from Eric's account, but no one had cashed it in. My heart began to thud and hundreds of questions raced through my mind. Who was he giving this money to? What was he doing with it?

I turned a few more pages and came across a page that was torn up and left behind a single sentence:

"...it at our favorite spot...cedar lake near the..."

There was a weird feeling surrounding me and I could feel that something was off in my gut. I put on some shoes and grabbed my keys and phone before hurrying to my car. The only spot that I knew he could be referring to was the same spot we'd always pick down at Cedar Lake when we'd go fishing for the day. As I drove down the road, I couldn't imagine what he was talking about or what I'd find. Maybe I was over exaggerating and wasting my time going down there?

When I finally arrived at the lake, no one was there since it was almost ten at night. I grabbed the shovel I'd just bought for my garden before following the trail to our spot, using my phone as a flashlight. When I finally made it to the spot, I began to dig. I didn't know what I was searching for, but all I knew was that I couldn't stop until I found something, anything. I had to of been digging for about thirty minutes before I heard a thud as the shovel hit something hard. I picked my phone up and shined the light in the shallow hole I'd dug and shock paralyzed my body when I saw a bone covered in dirt.

"No..." I whispered to myself, "No... no no no! It can't be!" I continued to dig up what was now a grave until the skeleton was uncovered. I denied the possibility that it was him, right unto the point when I looked at the skeleton's wrist and saw the same watch Kaden wore. The very same bracelet I'd bought him for his birthday. I screamed my son's name out in despair, wishing at that very moment that I could go back and save his life.

"I kept telling myself I needed to get rid of that notebook and phone. I just never thought you'd find it..."

I jumped at the sound of Eric's voice, almost falling over on my son's remains. I was in disbelief and so many emotions were running over my body, "Eric... what happened to my son!?"

Tears were running down his face and that's when I realized he was holding a gun in his hand. Eric took a shaky breath, "I never wanted to hurt my own son, Candance."

My heart shattered in pieces as the truth began to finally unfold right before me, "You killed him, Eric!? You killed my baby!? Why would you do this to him... t-to us?"

Eric took a shaky breath, "He was never supposed to get hurt, Candance. Kaden was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What happened!?" I screamed, demanding an answer. My heart was pounding in my chest from fear but at the same time, my blood was boiling from the anger I felt.

"Kaden witnessed me kill someone, Candance. I-I didn't expect him of all people to be around! That check that you saw in the black book... I was supposed to give it to the man I killed, but he tried to play me... so I killed him. Kaden was on his way home from practice and happened to be at the same place as us. What the hell was I thinking trying to pay off my own son? I tried to offer him the money... he wouldn't take it. Instead, he turned around to run... so before I could even think about what the hell I was doing... I shot him out of fear. I shot my son..."

I dropped down to my knees and sobbed, "Why couldn't you just let him go?"

I heard the gun cock back and I knew what he was going to do, but I didn't care anymore. Nothing else mattered to me now that I knew what really happened. I'd spent months convincing myself that he was alive and safe somewhere, only to find out my husband was his murderer. "I'm so sorry baby..."

I looked up at him one last time, "You'll rot in hell for this Eric." I closed my eyes and seconds later, I heard the gunshot before I felt any pain; but the thing is I never felt any pain. Instead, I heard a thud and opened my eyes to discover that Eric had shot himself instead, ending his own life. I turned around and faced Kaden's remains, closing my eyes as I took a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, Kaden... I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you from this." I sobbed out.

Minutes later, I picked up my phone and dialed 911, explaining to them the events that had just taken place. It took them about ten minutes to arrive and soon the park was flooded with police cars, the coroners truck, and the news station. I was taken into questioning almost two hours later and once I told them everything that happened, they finally released me the next morning when they realized I was telling the truth.

The twenty-thousand dollar check was still home and I realized that I would be able to give my son the proper burial he deserved. Although I was torn and scarred, I came to realize one final thing:

Kaden was finally at peace, thanks to a little black book.