When I woke up that night, the first thing I noticed was the emptiness beside me. The hotel room was dark, painted with thin lines of moonlight filtering through the curtains. My new husband, Ryan, wasn’t holding me like he had fallen asleep doing just hours before. Instead, he was turned away, his broad back slightly hunched, his arms wrapped protectively around something small and wooden.

At first, I thought he was cradling the Bible from the nightstand—odd, but harmless. Then, as my eyes adjusted, I realized it was a box. A dark, polished wooden box about the size of a shoebox. He was whispering to it.

My stomach tightened.

“Ryan?” I said softly.

He froze. Then, slowly, he turned his head toward me, his face pale in the moonlight. “You’re awake,” he murmured. “I couldn’t sleep. It’s… it’s her.”

“Her?” I echoed.

He hesitated, then sighed. “It’s Claire. My ex. The one who died. I—uh—I brought her ashes. It felt wrong to leave her behind.”

Silence filled the room like cold air. My mouth went dry. We’d only been married three days.

He must have seen my face, because he added quickly, “It’s just a comfort thing. She was a big part of my life. I’ll put it away. Don’t be weird about it, okay?”

I forced a smile I didn’t feel. “Okay,” I whispered.

But when he finally drifted off to sleep again, the sound of his slow breathing mixing with the crash of distant waves outside our Maui suite, my mind wouldn’t quiet. My husband had brought another woman’s ashes to our honeymoon.

The next morning, he got up early to shower. I stared at the box on the bedside table, still glistening faintly from the morning light. My heart thudded. Curiosity and dread wrestled inside me until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I lifted the lid.

Inside wasn’t ashes. There was a folded stack of letters tied with twine, a worn photograph of a blonde woman smiling beside Ryan, and—my blood turned to ice—a flash drive, labeled in neat handwriting: “Do Not Show Her.”

Her?

I played it on my laptop.

The first video opened to Claire—alive, staring into the camera. “If you’re watching this,” she said, “then Ryan did it again.”

My hands shook. That was the moment I knew: I had to get out

My hands trembled so hard the laptop almost slid off the bed. The video continued, Claire’s eyes steady, her voice quiet but sharp.

“If you’re watching this, it means Ryan is with someone new. I thought I was the last. Maybe you are. Maybe not. But listen to me — he’s dangerous.”

She swallowed, glancing off-camera as if afraid someone might walk in. “He looks perfect, doesn’t he? The charming smile, the soft-spoken kindness, the way he listens to everything you say like it matters. That’s how he got me, too. But once you move in, once you’re his, everything changes.”

My heart hammered. The ocean outside sounded far away now, like it belonged to another world. I paused the video, my pulse thudding in my ears. It had to be some twisted joke. Maybe she was bitter, maybe this was filmed before therapy or something. Ryan never seemed violent — controlling, maybe, a little jealous, but not dangerous.

I hit play again.

“He isolates you. Slowly. He tells you your friends don’t really care, your family’s toxic, that only he understands you. Then he keeps proof of everything — texts, emails, recordings. He says it’s for ‘memories,’ but really it’s leverage. When you try to leave…”

Family games

Her voice broke. She wiped her eyes. “I thought I was special. I thought he loved me. But when I told him I was pregnant, he lost it. He said I’d ruined his plans. I don’t think I was supposed to survive that night.”

I gasped. The video froze on her tear-streaked face.

The bathroom  door clicked open.

I shut the laptop and slid it under a pillow just as Ryan stepped out, steam billowing behind him. “You’re up early,” he said casually, towel around his waist. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” I lied, my throat dry. “Just thinking about the beach today.”

He smiled — that warm, disarming smile that used to melt me. “Good. I was thinking we could drive along the coast. No phones. Just us.”

I nodded, pretending to adjust my suitcase. But as he turned to dress, I saw something else on the nightstand: another flash drive, this one unlabeled.

A chill went through me.

When he left for breakfast, I plugged it in. This one wasn’t a video — it was a folder full of photos. Dozens of women. Ryan with them. Some looked candid, some… didn’t look consensual.

And then I saw the final file: “Claire_Final.jpg.”

My stomach lurched.

It wasn’t an urn he’d been cuddling that night. It was evidence — trophies.

That’s when I knew it wasn’t grief that tied him to that box. It was guilt.

I shut the laptop, threw on clothes, and packed my bag with shaking hands. When I reached the door, my phone buzzed. A text from him:

Where are you going, sweetheart?

You shouldn’t have opened the box.

I froze in the hallway, phone clutched tight. My throat constricted. The air in the hotel corridor felt too still, too quiet — like the whole building was holding its breath.

He knew.

I didn’t answer the text. I shoved my phone into my pocket and ran. The elevator was too slow, so I bolted down the stairwell, sandals slapping against the concrete. My heart pounded with every floor I passed — five, four, three. When I burst into the lobby, I nearly collided with a bellhop.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” he asked.

“Call the police,” I gasped. “Please. Room 712. My husband—”

The words tangled in my throat. How do you explain something like that? That the man you married three days ago might have killed his ex — and maybe others?

The bellhop’s eyes widened, and he nodded, reaching for the phone. I ran out the sliding doors into the humid Hawaiian morning. The ocean shimmered across the street, the same ocean that had seemed so beautiful the night before. Now it felt endless and cruel.

I called the police myself from a cab. I told them everything — the box, the videos, the flash drives. They told me to go somewhere safe, not to return to the room. I booked the first flight back to California, my hands still trembling as I handed the driver cash.

At the airport, while waiting to board, I checked my phone again. There were six missed calls from Ryan. One voicemail.

I hesitated before pressing play.

“You misunderstood,” his voice said softly. Too softly. “Claire wasn’t who she said she was. I was protecting myself. You shouldn’t have looked. You ruined everything, Emily. But it’s okay — we’ll fix it when you come home.”

Home. The word made my skin crawl.

I turned off the phone.

By the time I landed in San Francisco, the police had already gone to the hotel. They found the box — empty. The drives were gone. Ryan was gone too.

Two days later, a detective called. They’d traced his rental car to a cliffside road near Hana. Tire tracks ended abruptly near the edge. No sign of him below.

They ruled it an accident. I knew better.

Sometimes I wake up at night still feeling his arm around me, that same warm weight, and I wonder if he’s really gone — or if he’s still out there, looking for someone new to hold.

And every time I close my eyes, I see that box — that beautiful, polished box — and I hear Claire’s voice whispering through the dark:

“He did it again.”