The Photograph in Her Hands
Chapter 02 - The Photograph in Her Hands
Daniel tried to convince himself there was a reasonable explanation.
Maybe Emily had spoken about old friends.
Maybe the girl had seen photographs.
Maybe grief was turning an ordinary coincidence into something else.
But then the child held out the framed picture.
“I’m Lily,” she said.
Daniel barely heard her.
Tucked behind the photograph was a folded envelope, yellowed at the corners.
His name was written across the front.
Daniel Mercer.
Emily’s handwriting.
He knew it immediately.
The older man finally spoke.
“My name is Thomas Carter. Emily was my daughter.”
Daniel looked at him sharply.
Thomas had aged, but Daniel recognized him now. Twelve years earlier, Thomas Carter had been the man who stood on Emily’s front porch and told Daniel that Emily never wanted to see him again.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You told me she left.”
Thomas’s face hardened with shame.
“I told you what I thought was necessary.”
The words hit harder than Daniel expected.
Lily looked between the two men.
“What does that mean?”
Neither answered.
Daniel crouched so he was closer to her eye level.
“What did your mother tell you about me?”
Lily swallowed.
“Not much. She said you were someone she should have told the truth to a long time ago.”
Daniel looked back at Thomas.
The old man’s eyes filled with regret.
“There are things you don’t know.”
Daniel stood.
“For twelve years, apparently.”
Thomas glanced toward the mourners leaving the cemetery.
“This isn’t the place.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“My entire life changed because of something you told me on her porch. You don’t get to decide the place anymore.”
Lily suddenly held the envelope out farther.
“Mom said you had to read this first.”
Daniel stared at it.
He wanted to open it.
He was terrified to.
May you like
Then Lily said something that made every argument inside him disappear.
“She said after you read it, you’d understand why she was scared to tell you I existed.”
