Chapter 3 - THE BOX IN THE LINEN CLOSET
Carol let Nathan inside through the side door.
His parents’ house in Loveland looked exactly as it always had: polished hardwood floors, framed family photographs and a bowl of decorative lemons no one had ever eaten.
Derek’s engagement portrait stood on the mantel.
There was no photograph of Lucy after preschool.
“Sit down,” Carol said.
Nathan remained standing.
“Get the letters.”
His mother wrapped both hands around the belt of her robe.
“You don’t understand what Rachel was like when she left.”
“I remember. I was there.”
“She was unstable. She disappeared for almost two years.”
“And after that?”
Carol looked toward the hallway.
“She contacted us.”
Nathan waited.
“She said she was in recovery. She had a job in Cheyenne and wanted to start sending money. She thought you would refuse it if it came directly from her.”
“Did you tell her that?”
“I told her you were protecting Lucy.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Carol’s mouth tightened.
“I told her you didn’t want contact.”
The words were quiet, but they changed the shape of the room.
Nathan had filed for sole custody after Rachel left. She had not appeared for the final hearing. The order gave him full decision-making authority and allowed future contact only by agreement.
He had never agreed because no one told him Rachel had asked.
Carol walked upstairs.
When she returned, she carried a blue storage box with a cracked lid.
Inside were birthday cards, drawings, children’s books and sealed envelopes addressed to Nathan. Most had postmarks from Cheyenne. A few came from Casper and Laramie.
Four years of letters.
Nathan opened the oldest.
Rachel’s handwriting leaned hard to the right.
I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to let me prove I can become someone Lucy could safely know.
Another letter contained a photograph of Rachel outside a dental clinic wearing blue scrubs. On the back, she had written that she had completed treatment, rented her own apartment and attended weekly recovery meetings.
Nathan looked at his mother.
“You kept all of this.”
“I was trying to prevent her from walking in and out again.”
“You didn’t even let me decide.”
“You would’ve said yes eventually.”
Carol sounded angry now, almost offended.
“You always want to believe people can be better. Then I would’ve been the one helping you put Lucy back together when Rachel failed.”
Nathan lifted the box.
“And the money?”
“Your father handled it.”
“Your email reset my banking password.”
Carol sat down heavily.
“Derek was drowning after his restaurant deal collapsed. Your father said we could borrow from the fund and replace it before anyone noticed.”
“You borrowed from a six-year-old.”
“We paid some of it back.”
“You took it again.”
Carol looked away.
Nathan noticed that the letters stopped seven months earlier, the same month as Rachel’s final deposit.
“Why did she stop sending money?”
Carol rubbed her thumb over a scratch in the table.
“She found out.”
“How?”
“Derek went to Cheyenne for a bachelor weekend. He saw her at a restaurant and made some stupid comment about how her money had kept the family afloat.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“What did Rachel do?”
“She called me. She said we had until the wedding to restore every dollar or she would contact you herself.”
The wedding was nine days away.
The tux request had not been about a tux. Richard needed Nathan’s four thousand dollars to hide part of the shortage before Rachel exposed them.
Nathan carried the box toward the door.
Carol stood.
“You cannot bring her back into Lucy’s life because you’re angry with us.”
Nathan turned.
“You don’t get to use the damage you caused as a reason to keep causing it.”
At home, he found Rachel’s current address on the return label of the newest sealed letter.
He sent a brief email.
This is Nathan. I found the letters. I know about the money. I need to understand what happened.
Rachel replied eleven minutes later.
I’ll meet you, but not at your parents’ house and not without someone else present.
May you like
Then a second message arrived.
Your mother told me you hated me. She also told me Lucy believed I was dead.
