A Test of Faith [bxb]

Prologue

Rain peppers the window of his study. It had been a cloudy day already, a heavy wetness seeping through the cracks of his townhouse long before the rain even began. The drizzle starts picks up, teasing a night of thunder yet to come.

Luke leans back in his chair, arms pushing the desk as he stretches his back. He fixates on the rain streaking the window.

It's a day reminiscent of his youth, a day when his own tears challenged the ones falling from the sky. The memory tugs at him, begging his fingers to leave the work on his laptop in lieu of fumbling through the old letters he's kept locked in the bottom drawer of his desk.

The letters. It's been over a year now since he last read the letters. The lock protected their sanctity from the curious eyes of his wife and their young children, a memory frozen in time.

Luke turns the lock on the office door before pulling his key ring from his pocket. A golden key whispers to him.

Luca.

It slides into the hole in the chestnut desk, a lock he had specially made for the key. With a gentle tug, the drawer slides open.

The letters. The drizzle outside has turned to a pour, and the drilling sound cocoons the office in a safe embrace.

The first letter is dated from ten years prior, to the day. It's odd, Luke thinks, that the rare August storms lined up.

Luca, the page begins.

I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye.

With those words, the memories of the summer that preceded the letters spill into Luke's consciousness, bringing him back to the chance meeting of his first love.