Chapter 2 - The Envelope in the Dark
My lungs burned as I read those words again.
My father was alive three weeks ago.
He had written a note about my son.
I turned around slowly in the silent study.
Sarah stood in the doorway.
She was holding Leo against her shoulder.
Her face was completely devoid of color.
“He threatened to take you away from me, Marcus,” Sarah whispered.
“Who threatened you?” I asked.
“Your father,” she replied.
“Arthur never died in that ravine.”
Leo hid his face in Sarah’s sweater.
“Why did you lie to me for six years?” I asked.
“Because Arthur owed money to dangerous men,” Sarah said.
“He faked his death to escape his debts.”
“And you helped him?” I asked.
“I had no choice!” she cried out.
“He had documents that could ruin my family.”
Clara walked into the study behind Sarah.
“She’s lying, Marcus,” Clara said sharply.
Clara held a small black ledger in her hand.
“I found this in Dad’s shop cabinet an hour ago.”
“Sarah was sending money to an offshore account every month.”
“Five hundred dollars every single month for five years.”
I stared at my wife.
We had struggled to pay our mortgage every month.
I had worked sixteen-hour shifts at the carpentry shop.
I had skipped meals so we could buy milk and diapers.
All that time, Sarah was sending money away.
“Where did that money go, Sarah?” I asked.
Sarah closed her eyes tightly.
She refused to answer.
“It went to a private care facility in Vermont,” Clara answered for her.
“For who?” I demanded.
“For Arthur,” Clara said.
“Dad is in a coma in a private care house.”
My world tilted beneath my feet.
My father was not running from debt.
He was helpless in a medical facility.
“Why would you keep him there?” I asked Sarah.
“Because he knows the truth about Leo,” Sarah confessed.
Her voice was barely audible.
“What truth?” I stepped closer to her.
“Leo is not your biological son, Marcus.”
The room went completely quiet.
The only sound was the ticking of the grandfather clock.
“Whose son is he?” I asked quietly.
Sarah looked down at the wooden floorboards.
“He belonged to your younger brother, Thomas.”
My brother Thomas had died seven years ago in a factory accident.
We had buried him in the family plot beside our mother.
“Thomas didn't have a child,” I said, my voice breaking.
“He did,” Sarah said, tears streaming down her face.
“With a woman named Elena.”
“Elena died giving birth to Leo four years ago.”
“Your father took the baby to protect Thomas’s secret.”
“He gave Leo to me because I couldn't have children.”
“He made me promise never to tell you.”
I felt an overwhelming emptiness in my chest.
My marriage was built on a web of silence.
My son was actually my nephew.
My father was alive in a hospital bed two states away.
“You let me believe I was a father,” I said.
“You are his father, Marcus!” Sarah sobbed.
“You raised him!”
“You loved him every single day!”
“You lied to me every single day,” I corrected her.
I walked past her into the hallway.
I grabbed my coat from the wooden rack.
“Where are you going?” Clara asked, alarmed.
“To Vermont,” I said.
“I’m going to see my father.”
“Marcus, please don’t leave,” Sarah begged.
She dropped to her knees on the rug.
“If you go there, they will arrest me.”
“Why would they arrest you?” I asked.
Sarah looked up at me with utter terror in her eyes.
“Because I am the one who signed his admission papers using a fake name.”
“I paid them to keep him hidden.”
“I did it to keep our family together!”
I looked down at the woman I had trusted for a decade.
She looked like a complete stranger to me.
I turned the brass doorknob.
“Marcus, look!” Clara suddenly shouted from the study.
She was holding a legal folder from the bottom drawer.
“This isn't just an admission paper.”
“It’s a living will.”
“And Sarah is listed as the sole beneficiary of Dad’s entire estate.”
The estate was worth millions in old land grants.
Land my father had always told us was completely worthless.
I turned back to Sarah.
Her crying stopped instantly.
Her facial expression shifted from sorrow to cold reality.
“He was going to give it all to a charity, Marcus,” Sarah said coldly.
“He was going to leave us with nothing.”
“I did it for Leo’s future.”
“You did it for yourself,” I said.
I pulled my truck keys from my pocket.
“I am taking Leo with me.”
“You can’t take him!” Sarah yelled, standing up quickly.
“I am his legal guardian on paper!”
She pulled a folded document from her purse.
It was a court custody order signed three days ago.
It declared me mentally unfit due to work stress.
Sarah had filed it without my knowledge.
“If you walk out that door with him, Marcus, it is kidnapping,” Sarah warned.
May you like
She raised her phone and dialed three numbers.
“Officer, I need help at my residence immediately.”
