Sarah and I shone our flashlights to help him see and anxiously watched his progress. Finally, he reached the hollow. There’s something here.
He shouted from above. “Some container!” He pulled a small, capsule-like metal cylinder out of the hollow and began to descend.
A few minutes later, he was standing next to us, displaying his find. The container was tightly sealed with a screw-on lid. I tried to open it, but the lid wouldn’t budge.
“It looks like it’s glued together,” I noticed as I examined the joint between the lid and the body. “Or welded.” “So we need to open it,” Sarah decided…
But not here. Let’s go back to the car. We sat in the cab, turned on the lights, and began to carefully examine the container.
There were no inscriptions or other markings on the smooth metal surface. Only the lid had a small protrusion, similar to a button. “Maybe it needs to be pressed?” David suggested.
I carefully pressed the protrusion. There was a slight click, and the lid lifted slightly. I unscrewed it and looked inside.
In the container were several items: a USB flash drive, a sealed bag with something resembling a chip inside, three passports, and a folded piece of paper. I took out the passports and opened them.
They were foreign ones, issued in the names of Emily, Sarah, and David Novak. Their birth dates matched ours, but their last names had been swapped. Each passport had a matching photograph.
I didn’t know where John had gotten mine. “These are our new documents,” Sarah whispered, looking at the passport with her name on it. “For a new life.” I unfolded the sheet of paper.
It was a handwritten letter from John. Dear ones! If you’re reading this letter, it means you found each other and found the treasure. I hoped I could explain everything myself, but circumstances seem to have turned out differently.
I know you must hate me now. For the lies, for the double life, for all the secrets I kept from you. I don’t apologize.
What I did is unforgivable. But I want you to know that I loved you both.
In different ways, at different stages of life, but with sincerity and depth. Sarah, you were my first true love, the mother of my child, my rock in the darkest times. You gave me a family when I needed it most.
Emily, you came into my life later, when I no longer believed I could experience those feelings. You brought me light and warmth, you reminded me of who I really am. I know I caused you pain, and I can’t do anything about it. But at least I can guarantee your safety.
In the container, you’ll find everything you need to start a new life. Passports, a USB flash drive with instructions, a microchip with an encryption key to access the server with additional documents, and the access code to the bank account in a Swiss bank.
The first five digits after the decimal point of pi are 14159, plus the year I met Sarah, 2007. There’s enough money there for you to start a new life in any country in the world. I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other again.
If I can get out of this situation, I’ll find you. If not, I want you to know that you were the best thing in my life.
Take care of each other. John. I finished reading and looked up.
Sarah was crying silently, covering her face with her hands. David hugged her shoulders, barely holding back his tears. I felt a lump in my throat too. John loved us both.
In a different way, but sincerely. And now, perhaps, he was in danger or even dead, trying to protect us. What do we do now? David asked when we’d calmed down a bit.
I looked at the passports, the USB drive, John’s letter. “Do what he suggests,” I replied. “Start a new life. Together.”
Sarah looked up at me, her eyes filling with tears. Together? Are you really ready to live with us? After everything that’s happened? I didn’t know if I was ready for this. To live with the woman who was also my husband’s wife, with the son he never spoke about.
It was strange, unusual, beyond anything I could have imagined a week ago. But we had no choice. We were connected.
Connected by John, his secrets, his love, his concern for our safety. And perhaps only together could we survive this new and dangerous reality. Yes, I nodded. Together.
At least until we’re sure the danger has passed. Sarah wiped her tears and smiled weakly. Okay.
Together, then together. After all, we’re a family now. Strange, unusual, but family.
We decided not to return to Cleveland, but to go straight to New York International Airport. On the way, we stopped at a gas station with a convenience store and bought new clothes to change our look. Sarah cut her long hair, and I dyed it from brown to blonde.
David put on thick-framed glasses, which completely changed his face. At the airport, we used new passports to buy tickets for the closest flight to Zurich. Switzerland seemed the logical choice, considering the bank with our money was there.
While I waited to board, I thought about how incredibly life can change in just a few days. Just Saturday, I was an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life. And now I’m sitting in the airport with my husband’s wife and son, with a new passport, a new look, preparing to fly to another country and start a new life, all because of a broken cactus pot.
Because of a careless, reckless step. Who would have thought that such a trivial thing could change destiny completely? Seeing Sarah and David sitting next to me in the waiting room, I realized they were thinking the same thing. About John, about his secrets, about his love, about his sacrifice for our safety.
And if we’ll ever see him again. Our flight boarding was announced. We got up, gathered our few belongings, and headed to the gate.
Uncertainty awaited us, a new life in a foreign country, possibly the constant fear of being discovered. But we were together. Three people connected by one man and his secrets.
Three people whose lives were turned upside down by a broken flowerpot. And perhaps this connection will help us survive in the new reality. And John? John will find us if he can.
I believed in that. I believed the love he felt for us would help him overcome all obstacles. And maybe one day we’ll be together again.
Not as a normal family, of course. As something new, unusual, beyond the usual relationships. But together.
As we passed through security, I turned around one last time, as if expecting to see the familiar figure of John running after us. But all I saw was a group of strangers going about their business. It was time to leave the past behind and move on.
We boarded the plane, and minutes later, it took off, taking us to a new life. A life that began with a broken cactus pot. A life full of surprises, dangers, but also new opportunities.
A life we will build together, day by day, step by step. And who knows, maybe one day, in a new house and on a new windowsill, I will once again see a cactus in a clay pot. And maybe John will be there, smiling his familiar, slightly sad smile.
After all, anything is possible in life. I had already convinced myself of that. After these words, my mother was speechless.
She never imagined that my ordinary story about a broken cactus would become the beginning of such an incredible story. A story about how one careless step can completely change destiny, turning upside down all the ideas about life and the people you seem to know. Mom was silent for a long time, absorbing what she heard.
And then he only asked one thing. Is it all true? Was John really an undercover agent? Did Sarah, David, and I really start a new life in Switzerland? I smiled and said that some stories are better left unanswered. Let everyone decide whether to believe them or not.
But I’m sure of one thing. You can never be sure you know everything about a person. Not even about those closest to you.
Everyone has their own secrets, their own inner life, that others can only guess at. And sometimes all it takes is a chance event. A broken flowerpot, an unexpected encounter, an overheard conversation.
For these secrets to come to light and change my life forever. Five
