Chapter 4 - THOMAS'S BOX
The locket had come from Thomas’s old cedar box.
He had died three years earlier.
Heart attack.
Sudden.
No final conversation.
Diane kept most of his things in the attic.
Lily had followed Claire upstairs while she searched for holiday decorations.
The box was open because Claire had been looking for old family photos Ryan requested for Lily’s preschool project.
Lily found the locket.
Diane saw it in her hand.
Then attacked.
Now Ryan went back upstairs himself.
The cedar box contained:
old photographs,
tax records,
letters,
a pocket watch,
Thomas’s army medals,
and one sealed envelope.
RYAN.
His name.
Thomas’s handwriting.
Diane stood in the doorway.
“Don’t.”
Ryan turned.
“Why?”
“Because he was confused near the end.”
“He died of a heart attack.”
“He was under stress.”
Ryan tore the envelope open.
Inside was a three-page letter.
Ryan read silently.
Then stopped.
Claire saw his hands begin to shake.
Thomas had written:
Ryan, there is something I should have told you years ago. Diane was afraid you would leave us if you knew. I was afraid too. Fear is not an excuse for what we allowed.
Ryan looked up.
Allowed.
Not:
what happened.
What we allowed.
He kept reading.
Laura did not abandon you.
May you like
She came back.
Ryan stopped breathing.
