Their wedding was nothing like the one they had once imagined. There were no flowers lining an aisle, no crowded dance floor, and no long reception with friends raising glasses. Instead, she married Ben, her childhood sweetheart, in a hospital room while illness hung over every word they said.
At the time, she believed she understood what they were facing. Ben was sick, the doctors had given frightening news, and the future looked painfully uncertain. She thought the vows they exchanged were built on the hardest kind of honesty.
Then, while straightening the bed, she lifted the mattress and found something that made her question how much she had really been told.
The Envelope Under the Mattress
Hidden beneath the mattress was a thick manila envelope. Her name was written on the front in Ben’s handwriting, familiar enough that she recognized it before she even opened it.