Chapter 9: The Letter No One Expected
Two years after the trial, Nathan believed the worst was finally behind them.
The nightmares had become less frequent.
Emma no longer hid food beneath her pillow.
Ethan had stopped checking every door lock before going to bed.
Sophie laughed freely again.
Life, slowly, had begun to resemble something normal.
Then one Monday morning, James walked into Nathan's office carrying a certified envelope.
"It came from the federal prison."
Nathan frowned.
He hadn't received a letter from Victoria since the sentencing.
He almost threw it away.
Instead, curiosity won.
Inside was only one handwritten page.
Nathan,
By the time you read this, I'll already be dying.
Stage-four pancreatic cancer.
The doctors say I have months. Maybe less.
I'm not writing to ask for forgiveness. I know I don't deserve it.
I'm writing because I lied about one thing.
The children were never the reason I became cruel.
Your father was.
He did to me what I later did to them.
Fear was the only language I ever learned.
That doesn't excuse me.
It only explains me.
There's one last secret hidden inside the old Harrington lake house.
Floorboard beneath the fireplace.
If the children are ever to know the whole truth...
Go there.
Nathan lowered the letter slowly.
His hands trembled for reasons he couldn't explain.
His father had died nearly fifteen years earlier.
A decorated businessman.
A respected philanthropist.
A man Nathan had spent his entire life trying to emulate.
Could Victoria have been lying one last time?
Or had the family's darkness started long before she entered their lives?
May you like
The next morning...
Nathan drove alone to the abandoned lake house.
