Chapter 15 - THE LAST THING HELENA HAD TO GIVEOne evening, Helena asked Graham to meet her alone.
She handed him a box.
Inside were photographs.
His first birthday.
His first day of school.
His father's old watch.
And dozens of letters.
Letters Helena had written to Graham but never sent.
Graham read one.
Then another.
They were filled with words he had spent his childhood wishing to hear.
I am proud of you.
You are my son.
I love you.
He looked at Helena.
“Why didn't you send these?”
She cried.
“Because every time I wrote them, I was afraid they weren't enough.”
Graham closed the box.
“They would have been enough.”
Helena nodded.
“I know that now.”
He stood.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Graham hugged her.
It wasn't the embrace of a healed child.
It was the embrace of a grown man choosing to stop carrying an old wound.
Helena held him tightly.
“I should have protected you.”
“You can protect Grace now.”
She smiled through tears.
“I will.”
But neither of them realized that the final letter in the box contained something neither had seen before.
A name.
A woman's name.
May you like
And a date.
A date from the month Graham's father died.
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