Chapter 16 - WHY HE KEPT THE FIRST LETTER
I asked Frank alone.
No lawyers in the room.
Probably stupid.
We were in a café.
He looked exhausted.
“Forget the trust for a minute.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone says that now.”
“Why did you keep the first letter?”
Emily was one then.
Evelyn’s trust had not yet been signed.
Financial motive incomplete.
Frank stared at his coffee.
“Because Diane had finally stopped crying every day.”
There.
Human.
“I thought contact would reopen everything.”
“You decided for her.”
“Yes.”
“And us.”
“Yes.”
“You let her believe we rejected her.”
“Not the first year.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That the agency recommended waiting.”
“Then?”
“She wrote again.”
“And you kept it.”
“Yes.”
“Then Evelyn asked about descendants.”
Frank closed his eyes.
“That changed things.”
Finally.
“The first letters were control.”
He nodded.
“The later ones?”
May you like
He whispered:
“Fear.”
