Chapter 13 - THE LETTER MY FATHER LEFT BEHIND
I waited until Amelia was asleep before opening my father’s letter.
The paper still smelled faintly like his study.
Clara,
If you are reading this, then something I feared may have happened.
I sat down.
My father wrote that he never hated Garrick.
He simply didn’t trust the way Garrick allowed Eleanor to speak for him.
He had watched me shrink around them.
Apologize when I had done nothing wrong.
Explain ordinary purchases.
Ask permission to use money that was mine.
He had wanted to confront me.
But he knew forcing me to choose would only drive me closer to Garrick.
So he created safeguards instead.
The house.
The dealership note.
The child trust.
Not weapons.
Doors.
Ways out.
Then came the sentence that broke me.
You were always strongest when you stopped trying to convince people to love you properly.
I cried then.
Not because Garrick had betrayed me.
Because my father had seen me disappearing long before I did.
The final page contained one last surprise.
A small coastal property in Maine had remained outside every financial structure Garrick knew about.
My mother’s old summer cottage.
Dad had restored it before he died.
It belonged to me.
Free and clear.
Abigail looked at the attached deed.
“Apparently your father believed in backup plans.”
I laughed through my tears.
That evening, Garrick called.
Not to demand money.
Not to argue.
He asked whether Amelia was healthy.
“Yes.”
“Can I start doing whatever the court requires to see her?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll do it.”
For the first time, I heard no entitlement in his voice.
Only loss.
Then he told me one more thing.
Eleanor had disappeared.
Her townhouse was empty.
Her phone was off.
And the remaining money from the Cayman account had been moved.
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
But Abigail did.
By midnight, Marcus found the destination.
Eleanor had transferred nearly $400,000 to an account under a different name.
A name none of us recognized.
Until Garrick saw it.
May you like
His face changed.
“That’s my sister.”
