Chapter 7 - The Package Arthur Hid for Eighteen Years
Arthur was twenty-two when Marianne found him.
She mailed a package to his college apartment.
Inside were three things.
The gold baby bracelet.
A photograph of Marianne holding me at the hospital.
And a letter addressed to me.
“Where’s the letter?”
Arthur looked ashamed.
“I still have it.”
My stomach turned.
“You had a letter from my biological mother for eighteen years?”
“Mom told me Marianne was using drugs again.”
Victoria immediately defended herself.
“She was unstable.”
Arthur ignored her.
“You were in college. You were happy. I convinced myself giving it to you would destroy your life.”
“So you decided for me.”
His face fell.
“Yes.”
Months earlier, after Dad suffered a minor heart attack, Arthur began going through old storage boxes.
He found Marianne’s package again.
This time, he requested old hospital records using the information from the bracelet.
The hospital envelope had arrived days before Gigi’s birthday.
He hid everything inside a gift box because he planned to confront Mom privately after the party.
Then Gigi reached toward it.
Arthur panicked.
That explained the gift.
It did not excuse eighteen years of silence.
I looked at him.
“Do you know where Marianne is?”
Arthur hesitated.
May you like
Then he said the words that changed everything again.
“She’s alive.”
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