Chapter 6 - A Daughter’s Handwriting
I read the letter twice.
Sarah’s name sat at the bottom in careful blue script.
The capital S looked almost right.
Almost.
“My mother used to sign permission slips for me,” Sarah said. “She knew how I wrote.”
Thomas sat down.
Slowly, like his knees had stopped trusting him.
“You didn’t send it?”
“No.”
“She told me you wanted to make yourself clear.”
“She?”
“I called after it arrived. I wanted to hear it from you.”
Sarah pressed her palms against the table.
“And?”
“Victoria said making you say it out loud would be cruel.”
The laundromat dryers rumbled beneath our feet.
Thomas looked old in that kitchen. Not the way Victoria meant when she dismissed people. Old in the way a person looks when years suddenly rearrange themselves.
Sarah picked up the letter again.
“You believed her.”
“I believed you deserved the right to say no to me.”
“You could have checked.”
“Yes.”
The answer came without defense.
Sarah blinked.
Thomas leaned forward.
“I should have checked harder. I was ashamed. I thought every closed door was something I’d earned.”
“Maybe some of them were,” she said.
His eyes dropped.
“But I wasn’t a door,” she continued. “I was your kid.”
“I know.”
“No. I don’t think you did.”
He nodded once.
“You’re right.”
That hurt her more than an argument might have.
She stepped away, breathing hard.
Daniel followed her to the little window overlooking the street.
I stayed at the table.
There were grocery receipts tucked between birthday cards. A work schedule. A printed flyer for a recovery meeting.
Not a shrine.
A life.
An ordinary, difficult life with one empty space running through it.
Sarah’s phone began vibrating.
MOM.
She silenced it.
A text followed.
Come back before you make this worse.
Then another.
You have no idea what that man is capable of.
Sarah typed with both thumbs.
Did you write the letter pretending to be me?
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Returned.
Finally:
I did what was necessary to protect our family.
Sarah stared at the message.
Thomas couldn’t see the screen.
“What did she say?”
Sarah slid the phone across the table.
He read it, closed his eyes, and covered his mouth.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then a new message arrived.
If you want the whole truth, ask him what happened to your college money.
May you like
Sarah lifted her eyes.
Thomas had gone completely still.
