Margaret Whitaker's Secret
Chapter 04 - Margaret Whitaker's Secret
Thomas refused to believe it.
“My mother wouldn't do that.”
Ethan gave a bitter smile.
“That's what my mom said about you for eighteen years.”
The words landed hard.
Marisol read the next part of Lily's letter.
Lily had discovered the truth accidentally.
Six months before her death, she had received a box from an old family friend. Inside were belongings that had once belonged to Margaret Whitaker, Thomas's eighty-four-year-old mother.
Among them was a carbon copy of the forged breakup letter.
And a handwritten note.
The Cole girl is gone. Thomas will recover. This is best for everyone.
Thomas sat down.
Marisol had known Margaret.
Everyone had.
Margaret Whitaker had spent decades protecting her family's reputation as though it were something sacred.
Lily had been the daughter of a mechanic.
Thomas had been the son of the airport's former executive director.
To Margaret, love had apparently been a problem requiring removal.
“But why didn't Lily come back after she discovered this?” Thomas asked.
Ethan looked away.
“Because by then she was dying.”
Silence filled the room.
“And because she knew you had built another life.”
Thomas had married four years after Lily disappeared. His wife, Rebecca, had died of cancer twelve years later.
They had a daughter, Rachel.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Lily had known.
“She watched from a distance,” Ethan said. “She said she wouldn't destroy your daughter's memories of her family just to fix her own broken heart.”
Thomas's voice cracked.
“And you?”
Ethan finally looked directly at him.
“I'm not here to destroy anything either.”
Thomas understood the question Ethan had not yet asked.
The boy was nineteen.
Lily had disappeared twenty years earlier.
Thomas stared at the young man across the table.
“Ethan…”
Ethan stood.
“Don't.”
He grabbed his duffel.
“My mother didn't send me here to find a father.”
He pointed toward Marisol.
“She sent me here because she said I still had family.”
Marisol's heart broke.
Then Ethan opened the door.
Thomas called after him.
May you like
But Ethan was already walking into the crowd.
And Marisol suddenly realized she had no idea where the boy planned to sleep that night.
