Twenty-Three Returned Letters
Chapter 06 - Twenty-Three Returned Letters
Lily brought Ethan to her mother's small house the next morning.
Nothing had been moved since Sarah's death.
A coffee mug still sat beside the kitchen sink.
A gardening hat hung beside the back door.
For Ethan, walking inside felt like entering the life he should have shared.
Then Lily opened the metal box.
Twenty-three letters lay inside.
One for nearly every year.
All addressed to Ethan.
The first began:
"Dear Ethan, our daughter was born yesterday."
Ethan couldn't finish it.
He covered his face.
Lily had spent her childhood believing her father chose not to answer.
Ethan had spent those same years believing Sarah never wanted him.
Two lives had been shaped by the same lie.
"I missed everything," he whispered.
Lily's voice was colder than she intended.
"Yes."
Her first day of school.
Her broken arm at eleven.
Her high-school graduation.
The night Sarah became sick.
Ethan had missed all of it.
"I'm sorry."
Lily shook her head.
"Don't apologize for something you didn't know."
But forgiveness wasn't that simple.
Then Ethan noticed the postal markings.
The first twelve letters had never reached his old addresses.
They had been redirected.
To the same private mailbox.
A mailbox registered to a company.
Ray recognized the company name immediately.
May you like
It belonged to Dominic Vale.
And Dominic, they discovered, was still alive.
