Chapter 14
Nobody spoke.
Finally, she slid one finger beneath the edge of the envelope.
Inside were four handwritten pages and a second, smaller envelope.
Grace read the first few lines silently.
Then she stopped.
Her eyes moved toward Arthur.
“What?” he asked.
Grace looked at the first page again.
“It says she met my mother.”
Arthur’s face emptied of expression.
“When?”
Grace continued reading.
“Several times.”
Arthur stared at the cedar box.
“That’s impossible.”
“No,” Grace said quietly. “Apparently it isn’t.”
She read further.
Then her hand tightened around the page.
I could barely stand the silence.
“What else does it say?”
Grace lifted her eyes.
“Mrs. Whitmore says Mom came to see her after Dad lost his job.”
Arthur stood very still.
“She says they stayed in contact.”
“For how long?” I asked.
Grace turned to the final page.
Her expression changed again.
“Until the week before Mom and Dad died.”
Arthur sat back down.
The afternoon light fell across Eleanor’s old handwriting.
For years, Grace had believed Arthur Whitmore had forgotten our family.
Arthur had believed his wife knew almost nothing about my father beyond the company dispute.
Both of them had been wrong.
And folded inside Eleanor’s letter was a second sealed envelope.
On that one, in my mother’s handwriting, were four words:
For Grace, when ready.
“So maybe you’re ready.”
Grace ran her thumb over the envelope.
“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
Arthur stood.
“You don’t need to open it here.”
Grace looked at him.
For once, he wasn’t asking questions.
He wasn’t insisting.
He simply stepped away.
That mattered.
Grace folded Eleanor’s letter and Mom’s envelope together.
“I want to read Mrs. Whitmore’s letter first.”
We went into Arthur’s kitchen.
Mrs. Alvarez made tea for the adults and hot chocolate for Annie and me.
Nobody touched any of it.
Grace read Eleanor’s four pages aloud.
Eleanor had first met Mom outside Arthur’s company offices.
Mom had gone there hoping to speak with someone about Dad’s dismissal.
Arthur was traveling.
May you like
Executives refused to meet her.
Eleanor happened to be leaving a luncheon in the building and noticed Mom sitting alone in the lobby.
