i leaned down , squeezed my fragile mother in a tight hug , and thanked her one last time before heading up the stairs . i will come to meet you shortly . '' i hoped that she was right , but after forty minutes we still had no call and that just did n't sit right with me at all . i let him claim my desire before i had the chance to consider what that meant to me , to my life . it was in the locked lower shelf , an iron chest that looked five hundred years old . 