Chapter 11 - The Letter Drew Never Read
Among Charles Mercer’s seized records, investigators discovered a locked archive.
Inside were letters.
Claire’s letters.
Seven of them.
She had written to Drew over three years.
Every one had been intercepted.
Drew read them alone.
The first said she was alive.
The second said she still loved him.
The third told him about Lucy.
The fourth begged him not to search because she still believed he was in danger.
The fifth contained a photograph of Lucy’s first birthday.
Drew cried before reaching the sixth.
The seventh was only four sentences.
I don’t know whether you hate me.
Maybe that would be easier.
Lucy has your smile.
I wish you could see it.
Drew found Claire outside.
He handed her the letters.
“I read them.”
Claire nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not finding another way.”
Drew shook his head.
“No more apologizing for surviving what my family did.”
He sat beside her.
“I hated you.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“I tried to.”
She looked at him.
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
They sat silently.
Then Drew said, “I never stopped loving you.”
Claire’s breath caught.
He did not ask her to say it back.
That was why she finally could.
“I never stopped either.”
Their first kiss in five years was not dramatic.
No music.
No ballroom.
No audience.
Just two people sitting beneath an ordinary porch light.
Drew touched her cheek.
Claire leaned toward him.
And five stolen years briefly disappeared.
But the next morning, investigators called.
Charles Mercer had offered a deal.
And his condition was simple.
May you like
He would reveal where the missing money had gone only if Claire came to see him.
Alone.
