The letter trembled in my hands. Not because the paper was fragile. Because I was. For twenty-one years I had believed my father had made a choice. Now I was discovering that someone else had made it for him. Mrs. Voss rested one trembling hand on the back of Lucan’s old chair. Her breathing was slow. Patient. She wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at her son’s handwriting. She had probably memorized every curve of every letter decades ago. Yet seeing me hold it somehow made it new again.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to continue. “My dear son…” My voice echoed softly through the room. “I don’t know if you’re reading this as a little boy, a teenager, or a grown man.” “I pray you’re grown.” “Because if you’re old enough to understand these words, then perhaps you’re also old enough to understand that adults sometimes destroy the people they love while convincing themselves they’re protecting them.” I paused. Mrs. Voss closed her eyes. Calder stared at the floor. Sabine leaned against the wall, wiping away tears she no longer tried to hide. Bram quietly lowered himself onto Lucan’s bed. No one interrupted. I continued.
“If anyone tells you I abandoned you…” “They are lying.” “If anyone tells you your mother kept you from me…” “They are lying.” “If anyone tells you I stopped searching…” “They are lying.” “I loved your mother from the moment she laughed at my terrible joke in a bookstore.” “I loved you from the moment I saw your heartbeat on a blurry little screen.” “I have spent every day since trying to find you both.” The room seemed to shrink around me. My father’s words weren’t dramatic. They weren’t poetic. They were painfully ordinary. That made them impossible to doubt. I continued reading. “Today I hired another investigator.” “He thinks he has found where your mother went.” “I leave tomorrow morning.” “If he’s right…” “I’ll finally meet you.”
Mrs. Voss covered her mouth. I looked up. “You didn’t know he hired another investigator?” She slowly shook her head. “No.” “He never told me.” “He wanted to surprise me.” Her voice broke. “He wanted to bring you both home.” I looked back at the letter. “The weather forecast says there’s going to be heavy rain.” “I’ve always hated driving in storms.” “But I’d drive through a hurricane if it meant holding you once.” “I don’t know what your first word will be.” “I don’t know whether you’ll inherit my laugh.” “I don’t know if you’ll like baseball or music or books.” “But I already know one thing.” “You’ll never spend one day wondering whether your father wanted you.”
The words blurred.
I blinked away tears.
I had spent every birthday wondering exactly that.
Every Christmas.
Every Father’s Day.
Every lonely night in my apartment.
The answer had existed all along.
Hidden inside a locked room.
Waiting.
I kept reading.
“If something happens to me…”
“I need you to forgive yourself for believing whatever story you’re told.”
“Children trust adults.”
“That isn’t your fault.”
“Truth has a strange way of surviving.”
“If these words reach you…”
“Then truth finally won.”
Love always,
Dad.
Not Lucan.
Not Father.
Just…
Dad.
The letter slipped from my fingers onto Lucan’s desk.
I couldn’t stop crying.
Not because I had lost him.
Because I had finally found him.
Mrs. Voss quietly walked toward me.
She wrapped one arm around my shoulders.
“I wanted him to meet you.”
She whispered.
“So badly.”
“I know.”
“He would have loved you.”
I laughed through tears.
“You don’t even know me.”
She smiled.
“I know enough.”
“You stayed.”
“You cooked.”
“You repaired windows.”
“You studied after working double shifts.”
“You never once complained about twenty dollars.”
She gently touched the letter.
“You’re his son.”
Behind us…
Someone quietly cleared their throat.
It was Bram.
His eyes were red.
“There was something else.”
Everyone looked toward him.
“What do you mean?”
He slowly stood.
“When Father died…”
“I found another letter.”
The room froze.
Calder looked up instantly.
“Bram.”
His voice carried a warning.
But Bram ignored him.
“I burned it.”
Mrs. Voss stared at him.
“What?”
“I burned it.”
He couldn’t look at anyone.
“I was scared.”
“What did it say?”
He swallowed.
“It wasn’t from Lucan.”
“It was from Father.”
Silence.
“What did he write?”
Bram closed his eyes.
“He admitted everything.”
No one moved.
“He confessed that he paid someone to intercept Lucan before he reached Elara.”
Mrs. Voss’s knees almost gave way.
I quickly caught her.
“No…”
She whispered.
“No…”
Bram nodded slowly.
“He admitted telling Lucan that Elara had chosen another man.”
“He admitted telling Elara that Lucan refused to raise another man’s child.”
My chest tightened.
“He destroyed both of their lives.”
“Yes.”
“And then…”
Bram’s voice became almost inaudible.
“…he admitted something else.”
The room became deathly still.
“What?”
“He knew exactly where Elara moved.”
I felt sick.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“He had investigators watching her.”
“Then…”
“…he knew where I grew up?”
Bram nodded once.
“He always knew.”
Mrs. Voss covered her face.
“My God…”
Bram continued.
“He said…”
“‘One bastard is enough.’”
Nobody breathed.
“He said if Lucan’s child inherited anything…”
“…our family name would disappear.”
Calder suddenly exploded.
“STOP!”
Everyone turned.
His composure finally shattered.
“You think I wanted this?”
He slammed his fist against the wall.
“You think I enjoyed living with it?”
“I was twenty-six!”
“He controlled everything!”
Mrs. Voss looked directly at him.
“You became him.”
The words struck harder than any slap.
Calder fell silent.
She continued.
“When your father died…”
“You finally had a choice.”
“You could have searched for Merrick.”
“You could have found Elara.”
“You could have given Lucan his dignity back.”
Instead…
“You chose the money.”
Calder slowly lowered his head.
No one defended him.
Not even Sabine.
She quietly whispered,
“She’s right.”
Calder looked at his sister in disbelief.
“What?”
“We’re all guilty.”
She wiped tears from her face.
“I kept telling myself…”
“…we’d tell him next year.”
“Then another year passed.”
“And another.”
“Then it became impossible.”
She looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
The words sounded genuine.
But they arrived twenty-one years too late.
I looked toward the safe again.
Rows upon rows of files still waited.
Dozens of unanswered questions remained.
Then something caught my attention.
Behind the folders…
Almost hidden against the back wall…
Was a small black cassette tape.
A handwritten label covered one side.
It read:
FOR MERRICK — PLAY THIS ONLY AFTER READING MY LETTER.
I picked it up slowly.
Mrs. Voss gasped.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Neither had anyone else.
Calder stared at it as though he’d seen a ghost.
“Impossible…”
He whispered.
“There wasn’t a tape.”
Mrs. Voss looked at him.
“You searched this safe before?”
He didn’t answer.
His silence was enough.
I turned the cassette over in my hand.
Lucan’s handwriting covered the label.
It wasn’t another letter.
It wasn’t another document.
It was something far more precious.
It was my father’s voice.
I had never heard it.
Not once.
Not in twenty-one years.
Somewhere inside this old house…
There had to be a cassette player.
Mrs. Voss looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“There is one.”
She pointed toward Lucan’s bookshelf.
“He recorded songs.”
“He loved music.”
My heart began pounding again.
In just a few moments…
I would hear the voice of the father I had believed abandoned me.
For the very first time.
END OF PART 9
