Rebecca's Final Letter
Chapter 17 - Rebecca's Final Letter
Rebecca died peacefully at sixty-nine.
Before her death, she left Claire one final envelope.
Inside was another letter from Margaret.
Rebecca had forgotten she kept it.
Or perhaps she hadn't been ready to give it away.
Claire opened it at home.
Margaret had written:
Rebecca,
If Claire ever learns the truth, please tell her something for me.
Do not let her spend her life hating her father.
Claire stopped reading.
Tears blurred the page.
Margaret continued.
William is weak in ways that frighten me.
But weakness and evil are not always the same thing.
If he fails us, let Claire judge him by what he chooses afterward.
Claire sat silently.
Daniel found her an hour later.
She handed him the letter.
"Mom knew."
"About what?"
"That Dad might fail her."
Daniel sat beside her.
"And she still didn't want you trapped by hate."
Claire called William the next morning.
He was seventy-four now.
Older.
Quieter.
"Can you come over?"
He arrived expecting bad news.
Claire gave him Margaret's letter.
William read it.
Then broke down.
For years, he had believed Margaret died hating him.
The letter didn't absolve him.
It did something more painful.
It showed him she had understood him.
Claire finally hugged her father.
It wasn't forgiveness for nineteen minutes.
May you like
It wasn't erasing nineteen years.
It was simply a daughter choosing not to lose every remaining year too.
