Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem

Chapter 1429

Someone had been texting him from a burner number-a bunch of messages, all weird.

"There's a chess set in the coffin. Don't take it out. I put it there."

"If you're worried, check it. The chess set's wooden, totally harmless."

"If you toss it out today, I'll just have to make another one and find a way to slip it in again."

"If you don't want me disturbing their rest, just leave the chess set exactly as it is."

"And one more thing-after you seal the coffin, light a candle for me, okay?"

Tarquin's face was stone cold. He didn't have to guess who sent it. It was the mystery man. Again.

He put his phone away and went to find the chess set.

He opened the box: inside was a hand-carved, wooden chess set. Even the letters on the pieces were scratched in by hand.

The pieces were a little rough, the letters uneven and downright ugly, some even misspelled.

The craftsmanship was nothing to brag about, but the thought behind it was obvious.

Hand-carved-way more meaningful than anything bought off Amazon.

Everyone knew Kendrick loved chess. It was his thing.

the coffin at the funeral, but Gideon

and power. Hobbies like

long time. In the end, he put it back

it.

really didn't want that guy coming around

that man again. Accepting the chess set was better than seeing its maker

pulled himself together, and started sorting through the

searching for

he found a square plastic lunchbox that looked like

he'd been looking for.

relief twisted into

he'd tried to bury crashed

once.

thing he'd managed to put in his

box was

apart and put back together, over and over is dad had

died, Tarquin was

still remembered begging Gideon to let him put the puzzle in the

power. Every little thing about the Bradford family was

as his son's wife, so her

from both his

wouldn't have

put them in—and he wouldn't give them back, either. Instead, he burned

in front

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