Rebecca's Final Letter
Chapter 03 - Rebecca's Final Letter
Jonathan waited until the children were asleep.
That night, rain struck the windows of the Carter family home.
Sophie slept in Rebecca's childhood bedroom.
Ben had fallen asleep holding one of his mother's sweaters.
Jonathan sat alone in his study.
The envelope rested on the desk.
Dad, open this only if Daniel comes back.
Jonathan had found it in Rebecca's safe after her death.
Beside it had been the emergency guardianship order giving him temporary custody of Sophie and Ben.
Jonathan broke the seal.
His daughter's handwriting filled six pages.
Dad,
If you're reading this, Daniel came to the funeral.
Please don't send him away until you know everything.
Jonathan stopped.
His hands began trembling.
He continued.
Daniel didn't abandon us.
I made him believe I wanted him gone.
Jonathan stood so suddenly his chair fell backward.
"No."
He kept reading.
Rebecca wrote that eight months earlier, someone had begun threatening her.
At first, anonymous emails.
Then photographs of Sophie outside school.
Ben playing in the backyard.
Jonathan entering his office.
The sender demanded documents Rebecca had discovered while working as financial director of the Carter Foundation.
Documents involving millions of dollars.
Someone believed Daniel had them.
Rebecca became terrified that her family would be harmed.
So she pushed Daniel away.
She created the message.
She convinced him she had stopped loving him.
Then she changed the children's numbers.
Jonathan sat down again.
Tears blurred the words.
I thought if Daniel disappeared from our lives, whoever was watching us would believe he knew nothing.
It worked.
For a while.
Jonathan turned to the next page.
Then he read a sentence that made the room suddenly feel cold.
The person threatening me is someone you trust.
Jonathan stopped breathing.
His daughter had written a name.
A name belonging to the man who had stood only twenty feet from her coffin that morning.
Jonathan read it again.
Then a third time.
His oldest friend.
His business partner.
May you like
Rebecca's godfather.
William Foster.
