Chapter 2
Emma sat frozen on the floor.
Around her were hundreds of brightly wrapped presents.
Every ribbon.
Every handwritten tag.
Every carefully folded note.
Noah had wrapped them knowing he would never be there to watch her open them.
She looked back at the laptop.
The video resumed.
Noah smiled softly.
"I know what you're thinking."
He laughed quietly.
"You're wondering how long it took me to wrap all these."
Emma couldn't help smiling through her tears.
"You always hated wrapping presents..."
she whispered.
"I got better."
He held up a package with crooked tape on one corner.
"This one took me forty-three minutes."
"I almost gave up."
Emma laughed despite herself.
It sounded strange.
Laughing while crying.
But Noah had always been able to do that.
Even now.
His smile slowly faded.
"Emma..."
"I need you to understand something."
He leaned closer to the camera.
"The gifts were never meant to replace me."
"They can't."
"They never will."
"I made them because I was terrified."
Emma felt her chest tighten.
"Terrified of what?"
As though answering her question, Noah continued.
"I was terrified you'd stop celebrating your birthdays."
He sighed.
"You've always said birthdays weren't important."
"You only celebrated them because I forced you to."
Emma remembered.
Every year she insisted,
"I'm too old for birthdays."
And every year Noah ignored her.
He baked terrible cakes.
Bought ridiculous balloons.
Danced around the apartment wearing paper hats.
Just to make her laugh.
"So..."
Noah smiled.
"If I couldn't be there..."
"I wanted to make sure someone still reminded you that your life is worth celebrating."
Emma buried her face in her hands.
"Oh, Noah..."
He pointed toward a shelf behind the camera.
"There are presents for every birthday."
"But there are other boxes too."
Emma looked around.
She hadn't noticed.
Some tags didn't have dates.
Instead, they read:
When You Feel Like Quitting
Another.
After Your First Big Mistake
Another.
The Day You Forgive Yourself
Another.
When You Fall in Love Again
Emma stared at the words.
Then looked back at the screen.
Noah smiled gently.
"I know."
"That one probably made you angry."
Emma whispered,
"It does."
"I don't want you to spend fifty years pretending I'm still here."
His voice trembled.
"I love you too much for that."
Emma shook her head violently.
"I don't want anyone else."
Noah looked directly into the camera.
"If someday..."
"Someone makes you laugh the way I did..."
"Please..."
"Don't feel guilty."
Emma cried harder.
"Because if he loves you..."
"He'll understand that part of your heart will always belong to me."
For several seconds, Noah couldn't speak.
He looked down.
When he raised his head again, his eyes were red.
"I wanted forever."
"But life had other plans."
"So I settled for this."
He gestured toward the room.
"A few thousand moments."
"Wrapped in paper."
"Waiting for you."
Emma noticed a calendar hanging behind him.
The date caught her attention.
It was almost two years before he died.
She frowned.
"Noah..."
"You knew that early?"
The video answered.
"I was diagnosed twenty-three months before you found out."
Emma stopped breathing.
Twenty-three months.
Nearly two years.
He had carried the burden alone.
"I started recording these videos the week after my diagnosis."
"I'd have chemotherapy in the morning..."
"...then come home and wrap presents."
He laughed softly.
"Turns out ribbon is harder to fight than cancer."
Emma smiled through fresh tears.
Even facing death...
He still found jokes.
Suddenly, Noah became serious again.
"There are two gifts you must never open early."
Emma looked around the room.
He continued.
"The first is marked..."
For Your Wedding Day.
Emma stared in disbelief.
Wedding?
"The second..."
"...is hidden."
"You won't find it unless you're truly ready."
Her heart raced.
"Why?"
Noah smiled.
"Because that isn't really a birthday gift."
"It's my final goodbye."
The room suddenly felt colder.
Emma instinctively hugged herself.
"I don't want goodbye."
Noah's smile was heartbreaking.
"I know."
"But there's something inside that box..."
"...I've kept hidden from everyone."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"A secret I've carried since the day we met."
Emma frowned.
"A secret?"
Noah nodded.
"If you discover it too soon..."
"You'll spend years asking questions that can never be answered."
"So promise me..."
"Wait."
The video slowly faded to black.
The laptop screen displayed one final message:
Open Gift Number 87 only when your heart tells you it's time.
Emma looked around the room.
Every present was neatly numbered.
Her eyes searched the shelves.
Finally...
She found it.
A small navy-blue box.
Wrapped perfectly.
Labeled only with two words:
Gift #87
And beneath them...
May you like
In Noah's handwriting...
"This changes everything you think you know about us."
