Meanwhile, Julian arrived at Clayton's storage unit. The storage unit smelled like rust and
regret. Julian stood in the doorway, door rolled up just halfway, rain slowly dripping from
the edge. The unit was small – hardly capable of holding a desk. Somehow, Clayton
managed to fit a desk, filing cabinet, and stacks of boxes shoved against the back wall.
Clayton's handwriting stared at Julian from the nearest box, like it was calling him. It read,
PERSONAL – DO NOT OPEN. Julian gave out a little giggle, knowing that only made him
want to open it more. "You never learned, did you?," he thought out loud. How convenient
that there was a lock on the box. Julian looked around and found a brass key hanging from
the lamp on the desk. He quickly grabbed them and sllid the key into the box; it slid in so
smoothly that it felt like it had been waiting.
Inside the box were folders – old financial records, bank statements, shell companies that
Julian was aware of. Not because he'd created them, but because Clayton had. "You
bastard," Julian whispered to himself. It turned out, the embezzlement scheme that ruined
his life wasn't because Clayton exposed the truth. It was because he had been redirecting
it. Julian's heart sank into his stomach while tears formed in his eyes. He backed into the
filing cabinet and slid down to the floor. All those years of hatred, all those years of guilt,
carried like a disease that had no cure. And Clayton let him walk around thinking it was his
fault.
Julian's phone buzzed. It was an unknown number. Julian sat there for a second, hesitant
before answering the phone. "You shouldn't be there," a woman's voice said. His body
froze and butterflies flooded his stomach. "Who is this?" "You know who I am," she
replied. "You always did." "Are you spying on me? Tell me who you are, right now!" "You
should leave. Some things are better off kept secret." The line went dead. Julian tried
calling back, but when he tried calling, the phone kept saying that the device he was trying
to reach was no longer available. He stared at the phone, his heart pounding out of his
chest.
Julian looked up from the screen and noticed another box; smaller and unlabeled. Inside
was a sealed evidence bag with a thin, silver necklace with a teardrop shaped charm. He
recognized it immediately; he pulled it out of the lake himself. Clayton must have gotten
one of his connections to get rid of the evidence so that they wouldn't find Julian's prints all
over it. Julian closed his eyes and tears ran down his face. His brother was actually
protecting him all this time.
Julian's eyes remained closed while he thought about the past. * Julian had been passing
by the lake when he noticed an odd shift in the water. His curiosity was stronger than his
common sense. He took his jacket off and went into the water; swam to the odd spot that
he saw from the shore. He almost drowned when he saw car sunken in the lake. He swam
away as fast as he could and saw a necklace washed up on the shore. He grabbed the
necklace, took a look at it to see if it possibly had any value. After a short examination,
Julian shivered and said, "Nah, fuck this," and threw the necklace back in the water. He
didn't call the cops; he didn't get help; just grabbed his jacket and ran off. *
Julian opened his eyes with a look of confusion on his face as he realized something that
he never realized before. "Wait a minute," he paused. "How did Clayton know that my
prints would have been on this necklace? I never told him what happened," he whispered
to himself. Julian knew that Clayton had done some shady shit in the past, but nothing
about that car in the water. There was a third box, Julian was too scared to open it though.
His curiosity and common sense told him to stay away. He quickly got up, closed the door,
locked it, and ran. He took a sudden stop and started to look around his surroundings. How
could that woman have known he was there? Was she watching him? Was she nearby?
Who was she? There were too many questions and Julian figured he was safer thinking
about it at home than he was in the middle of the street.
Julian took the necklace with him in hopes of remembering more about what he saw in the
water that day. Little bits and pieces started to come back to him. He remembered seeing
a girl in the car. How come he didn't realize that then? He went back to the lake where it
happened years ago. He had the necklace in hand. He couldn't have this on his
consciousness any longer. Julian sanitized the necklace and threw in back in the water.
There was no car or anything else different about the water now. In the back of Julian's
mind, he thought that nobody would come back here looking in the water again. He gave
the necklace one last look before chucking it into the water and walking off.