Chương 7
“She was hurt.”
“I know.”
“She cried because of you.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“But she still loved you.”
The words landed harder than the anger ever could have.
Daniel looked back at Lily.
“She never told me.”
“Because she knew you.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas folded the envelope carefully.
“It means Sarah knew you would do what you always did.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“What?”
“You would carry the guilt.”
The accusation was not cruel.
That made it worse.
“You would decide you were the worst person in the world, and then you would use that as an excuse to disappear.”
Daniel looked away.
Because the truth hurt.
Thomas continued.
“Sarah didn’t need you to punish yourself.”
His voice lowered.
“She needed you to come home.”
Daniel had no response.
Because there was no defense against that.
He had spent years telling himself he was staying away because he was protecting everyone from his mistakes.
Maybe he had only been protecting himself from seeing what his absence caused.
“What did she find?” Daniel asked again.
Thomas looked down.
“The reason she got sick.”
Daniel felt his chest tighten.
“Sarah was sick because of…”
“I don’t know.”
Thomas interrupted gently.
“And that’s the problem.”
Daniel looked confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Sarah found medical records that didn’t make sense.”
The parking lot suddenly felt colder.
“Records?”
“She thought someone had made a mistake.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What kind of mistake?”
Thomas hesitated.
“A mistake involving Emma.”
Daniel looked toward the baby.
The small shape of her wrapped in the blanket.
His daughter.
The child he had met only hours earlier.
“What are you saying?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I’m saying Sarah was trying to understand why certain things happened at the hospital.”
Daniel felt a wave of fear.
“Was Emma sick?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Thomas looked directly at him.
“Why your daughter’s records were connected to another family.”
Daniel went silent.
The sentence seemed impossible.
“What family?”
Thomas looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s frustration rose.
“You came here and told me all this, but you don’t know?”
Thomas accepted the anger.
“You have every right to be angry.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
Thomas sighed.
“It’s the truth.”
Daniel looked toward Lily.
She was sitting on the bench, holding Emma.
She looked exhausted.
Too young to carry any more uncertainty.
“Does Lily know?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“Does anyone?”
“I don’t think so.”
Daniel ran a hand over his face.
A part of him wanted to reject everything.
He wanted this to be another misunderstanding.
Another painful thing that could be explained away.
But he had already learned what happened when he ignored painful things.
He lost years.
“Why did Sarah hide this from me?”
Thomas looked at the envelope.
“Because the last time she tried to reach you, you didn’t answer.”
Daniel froze.
“When?”
Thomas looked at him.
“Three years ago.”
The memory arrived suddenly.
A night when his phone rang.
A number he did not recognize.
He had ignored it.
He had been sitting alone in his apartment, drinking coffee that had gone cold, staring at messages from Sarah he was too afraid to open.
He had told himself he would call tomorrow.
Tomorrow had become another year.
“Did she call me?”
Thomas nodded.
“Several times.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
He did not remember.
Or maybe he had erased the memory because remembering would have forced him to admit what he had done.
“She left messages.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
“What messages?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Thomas.”
The warning in Daniel’s voice was quiet.
Not threatening.
Desperate.
Thomas looked at Lily again.
“She said she needed you to know something about Emma.”
Daniel felt his heartbeat increase.
“What?”
Thomas shook his head.
“That’s why I’m here.”
He handed over the envelope.
“Because I never found out either.”
Daniel stared at the paper.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Sarah had written his name.
Not Daniel.
Not Mr. Whitmore.
Something personal.
Something from before everything broke.
He opened the envelope carefully.
Inside was a folded letter.
His hands shook.
The first line was enough to make him stop breathing.
Daniel,
If you are reading this, then something happened that made it impossible for me to keep waiting.
He continued reading silently.
His eyes moved across the page.
The more he read, the more his face changed.
Thomas watched him.
“What does it say?”
Daniel did not answer.
Because the first sentence was not the worst part.
The worst part was the sentence near the bottom.
The one that made him look toward Emma.
The one that changed the meaning of everything.
Sarah had written:
I need you to know that Emma may not be the only child you lost.
Daniel looked up slowly.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas’s expression tightened.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
Daniel looked at Thomas for several seconds.
Then he looked back at the letter.
The paper suddenly felt heavier than it should have.
“I don’t know what this means.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Daniel folded the letter halfway, then stopped.
He could not put it away.
Not yet.
Not while the words were still burning in his mind.
Emma may not be the only child you lost.
A sentence like that was too large to fit inside an afternoon.
Too large to fit inside a wedding hall.
Too large to fit inside the life he thought he understood.
“What does she mean by lost?” Daniel asked.
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re her brother.”
“Yes.”
“You were with her.”
“Yes.”
“Then how do you not know?”
Thomas accepted the anger without reacting.
“Because Sarah kept things from me too.”
Daniel stared at him.
Thomas looked toward the street.
“She loved people by carrying things alone.”
May you like
The sentence reminded Daniel of her.
The way she would say she was fine while washing dishes with tears on her face.
