Invisible String

Chapter 26 - End Game

While packing, I grabbed something from the floor by the bed, and without knowing what it was, I picked it up and set it beside my suitcase. I looked down and picked the item back up. It was a small statuette. I felt like I'd seen it before at some point. It was little, gold, and it took me a minute to realize what it was, but then it hit me. It was a wedding cake topper. There was a man, embracing a woman tightly, their bodies had no room between them. It was beautiful and sad all at once. I showed it to Alex and asked him if he knew how it got there, and he shook his head. Intrigued, I went upstairs to find my mother. It was her house. She should know where it came from.

I found her in the kitchen, cleaning up dishes, and I went up beside her and touched her back lightly. Startled, she jumped and let out a small cry.

"Oh, Holy Mother Mary, Hannah! Gosh, darn you!" she exclaimed, smacking me with a rag while removing her wireless headphones from her ears and placing them in her pocket. I laughed and dodged her attempts to get me with the wet rag.

"Mom, mom, stop," I said, putting my hands up in surrender. "I wanted to ask you about this," I said, shaking the statue in my left hand.

Her smiled faded, and a frown soon replaced it. "Oh, Sweetie, where'd you find this?" She reached out and gently took it from my hand. Her eyes welled up as she stared at it, turning it around in her hands, admiring its beauty.

"It was in our bedroom, under some clothes by the bed." She never looked up from it, so I asked again, "What is it?"

She smiled again, tears falling from the corners of her eyes. "It was your grandfather's."

"How did it get in our room?"

She shook her head, genuinely unaware of how it could have wound up there. "I have no idea, Sweetheart."

A little frustrated now, I said, "You didn't put it there, Mom, did you? Because Alex and I aren't anywhere near that step in our relationship yet. So if it was some sort of sign–"

"I did no such thing," she said, cutting me off while wiping tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and looking up at me.

"Okay, sorry. I just... we're not there yet."

She nodded. "I understand that."

"Alright, I just... somebody had to have put it there." She shrugged and set it on the counter. "I don't know who, Hannah."

I shrugged, too, leaning against the counter. "Could've been anybody, I guess."

She nodded, turning back to the dishes. I stood beside her and helped her finish them up. We didn't talk much more after that, but before I went back to the bedroom, she insisted that I take the statue. If I didn't want it, I could leave it on the dresser, but she suggested I take it since I would hopefully be getting married at some point, and Grandpa would want me to use it.

Hesitant, I followed her orders. Back in the bedroom, Alex finished cleaning, grabbing his bathroom items, and tucking them away into a toiletry bag. While I wasn't ready for that huge next step, I was very glad he was here with me.

I set the statue next to my overflowing suitcase on the bed, then stood behind Alex and wrapped my arms around his abdomen, lying my head on his back.

"Thank you for being here," I said softly. He rested his arms on my own, then turned around and put his own on my shoulders. I looked up into his beautiful, kind eyes, happy that I had someone to share this mixture of terrible and perfect memories with. "I don't know how I could've done this without you."

He kissed me gently on the lips, his hand underneath my chin, then pulled back and said, "You are much stronger than you give yourself credit for, Hannah."