I carried the letter and DNA results downstairs. Rick was sitting at the kitchen table.
“Did you know William was writing to me?”
His face changed. “Claire…”
“Yes or no?”
He looked away. “It was a long time ago.”
That was answer enough.
I saw William in her.
I put my pregnancy letter on the table. “William never got this, did he?”
Rick stared at it. “You were pregnant?”
“You didn’t know?”
I dropped the DNA results on the table.
He shook his head. “I never saw this…”
“So you didn’t know Anna was William’s daughter.”
“Why did you take the other letters?”
“Not then.”
“When did you know?”
“I didn’t. Not for sure.” He glanced at Anna. “When I met her, I saw William in her. The eyes. The face. I started wondering.”
“So until today, you only suspected it?”
“Yes. Until you put that test in front of me, all I had was a suspicion.”
Why did you keep them?
“Then why did you take the other letters?”
Rick looked down. “Our father offered me tuition and rent for my mother to keep you two apart.”
“You took the letters and forged the one William got from me.”
Rick looked down. “Yes.”
“For money?”
“That’s what I told myself.”
“You knew who I was at that fundraiser.”
He pressed both hands against the table. “William always got everything. Our father. Friends.” He looked at me. “You.”
“So you hated him for it.”
Rick didn’t answer.
“Those photos in your drawer. Why did you keep them?”
Rick looked away. “Because I never forgot what he had that I didn’t.”
“Why did you come near me?”
“You took his letters. You took mine. And then you made each of us believe the other had walked away.”
“I was eighteen.”
“But you weren’t eighteen when you found me again.”
Rick looked down.
“You knew who I was at that fundraiser.”
“Yes.”
“Have something he’d wanted.”
Suddenly, even the beginning of our love story wasn’t mine anymore. “So that coffee wasn’t an accident.”
My Son-in-Law Ordered My Daughter to Change Before My Wedding – Then My 82-Year-Old Mother Walked In
My MIL Slipped Her Wedding Ring Onto My Finger and Said, ‘It Always Comes Back to This Family’ – Her Sister Whispered, ‘Not Always’
My MIL Handed Me the Keys to the Family Lake House – Her Sister Grabbed My Arm and Whispered, ‘Don’t Spend the Night in the Upstairs Bedroom’
“No.”
I felt something inside me go cold. “Why did you come near me?”
“William contacted me a few months before the fundraiser. First time in years. He mentioned you.”
“Why?”
“You dated me to get back at your brother?”
“He said he’d never completely forgotten you.”
“So you looked for me.”
Rick nodded. “I found you online. Saw that Daniel had died. Then I found out about the fundraiser…At first I just wanted to know if I could.”
I stared at him. “Could what?”
His voice dropped. “Have something he’d wanted.”
Anna found the photograph.
For a second, I couldn’t speak. “You dated me to get back at your brother?”
“At first.” He looked up quickly. “Claire, it changed. I fell in love with you. Anna too. You became my family.”
“And William knew?”
Rick hesitated. “No.”
A laugh escaped me, but there was nothing funny in it. “So you weren’t even hurting him. You were winning a competition that existed only in your head.”
“I was afraid she’d tell you.”
“Claire, please.”
“No. Because then Anna found the photograph.”
His face collapsed.
“And you did exactly what you did twenty years ago. You got between two people and decided which truth each of us was allowed to know.”
“I panicked.”
“You told my daughter I might be lying to her.”
“You didn’t lose me, Rick.”
“I was afraid she’d tell you before I could explain.”
“You had twenty years to fix it, three years with me, and three weeks after Anna found out.”
His eyes dropped. “I know.”
“And on our wedding morning,” I said, “you stood in her doorway, watched her beg me not to go, and told me she’d be fine.”
Rick covered his face.
I expected some old feeling to return.
That was the moment the last part of me stopped looking for an excuse for him.
“You didn’t lose me, Rick,” I said. “You stole my choice twenty years ago. Then you came back and tried to do it again.”
“Claire…”
“Leave. Tonight.”
“On her terms.”
Two weeks later, I met William at a coffee shop halfway between our lives. Anna wanted me to go first.
His hair had gone grey at the temples.
I expected some old feeling to return. It didn’t.
William was a stranger who had once been someone I loved.
We talked mostly about Anna and the letters. I told him Daniel had been her father in every way that mattered.
“William wants to meet you.”
“I just want to know her,” William said. “On her terms.”
“Good. Because neither of us gets to decide this for her.”
“If Anna wants to see you, she’ll tell you. If she needs time, you give her time.”
“I understand.”
“Make sure you do.”
That night I sat beside Anna. “I should’ve listened.”
“I should’ve told you why.”
Never again.
“You were scared. I should’ve seen that.” I took her hand. “William wants to meet you, but that choice is yours.”
She squeezed my hand. “Thank you.”
I filed for divorce the next morning.
Twenty years ago, Rick stole my choice. On my wedding day, I let him do the same to Anna.
Never again.
From then on, we made our own choices.
