Chapter 14 - THE LETTER IN THE DESK
Nathan waited until the girls were asleep before opening Claire’s envelope.
She had written it during the last winter of her life. At the top, she had put a date and one sentence:
Read this when you feel like you have failed them.
Nathan sat down.
Claire wrote about Emma’s habit of asking questions while she brushed her teeth, Lily’s loud laugh, Sophie’s stubborn hugs, and the way Grace watched everything before she spoke. She knew Nathan would want to protect them from every hurt. She asked him to be there for ordinary days too: breakfast, arguments over shoes, bedtime stories, the moments when a child tries to tell a parent something before knowing the words.
At the end, she wrote that if he made a mistake, he should listen, apologize, and let the girls see him try again.
Nathan folded the letter carefully. He could not know why Peter had taken it. Perhaps Peter wanted something personal to bargain with. Perhaps he had never even read it.
The next morning, Nathan made pancakes. Grace came into the kitchen first and found him standing over the stove.
“Are you going to work?” she asked.
“Later. After breakfast.”
“Will you come back?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you before I leave, and I’ll be home for dinner.”
She climbed onto a chair to watch him flip a pancake. He missed the pan. Grace laughed so hard that the others came running.
Later that week, Nathan visited the mansion one last time to collect Claire’s things. He walked through the ballroom, now empty and quiet. A faint stain remained on the marble where the champagne had spilled.
In the dining room, he found one of Claire’s painted gold stars on the door. He eased it free and placed it in his coat pocket.
He brought it to the new house and fastened it beside the kitchen entrance, low enough for the girls to touch.
Emma traced it with one finger.
“Mom painted that,” she said.
“She did.”
“Can it stay here?”
“For as long as you want.”
May you like
That evening, the girls’ sixth birthday invitations arrived from the printer. Nathan set them on the table beside Claire’s four sealed letters.
For the first time since Christmas Eve, he looked forward to a day he could give them.
