of the letter.
What if there are more letters for me?
“Can I share this with your brothers?”
He nods.
“I feel like I failed. How did I miss that part of the testament?”
“You were focused on getting the entire thing annulled,” I remind him.
“Also on convincing you not to come because I didn’t know if you’d be okay with them,” he adds. “Now I see that it was a stupid fear. The unfounded fear my family programmed in me every summer when I had to come.”
“It was a way to protect me,” I conclude.
He nods and takes me into his arms. I hug him back. I recall William’s words. The perfect love can never be replicated.
Was it perfect?
I don’t know. All I know is that he makes me feel safe, and for now it’s all I need.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Pierce
On Saturday night, we’re at Beacon’s. The guys are passing around Dad’s letter. Well, the copy Leyla gave me. She has the original which I’m sure she’s analyzing with her friends.
Hayes’s jaw twitches while he’s reading it. When he’s done, he says, “It’s not my mom.”
“What are you talking about?” I frown, taking the letter back.
“Whoever was his ‘pure love’ wasn’t my mother,” he states. “This clearly says he left that person, and Mom is the one who left him.”
So, one of our mothers was the love of his life, or he left the love of his life and tried to replace her with our mothers. What is it? And does it matter? I feel like it does.
“I’m concerned about the stipulations because it’s obvious that our lawyer sucks,” Mills claims.
Henry shakes his head. “That’s a pretty fucked up way to word it so we would fail. William knew he was getting a divorce.”
“If I had been divorced, I could’ve claimed it was outdated and switched it,” I tell them.
“Can you still do it?”
“No,” I respond.
“Is she going to forgive you?” Hayes asks.
“We’re working on our relationship,” I remind him.
Before the surgery, Hayes was the only one who knew what had happened between Leyla and me. Now it’s all out in the open. They don’t judge me. Just like me, they have fucked up in one way or another.
I feel like there are too many pieces of a puzzle spread on the ground that need to be put together.
“Why would he go and meet my wife?” I ask.
“He was watching us,” Henry concludes. “You’re the only one who had a wife.”
Beacon, who is the last one to read the letter, hands it to me and says, “I feel like there are a few truths buried in this place, and he sent us to dig them out—or bury them so the old curse is gone forever.”
“You don’t believe in the curse,” Mills says.
“Carter said it was real,” Beacon states. “It’s not some old spell, but something that we Aldridges do from generation to generation. We don’t learn from our ancestor’s mistakes.”
“That makes sense,” I agree.
“Vance?” I call him out because he’s staring at the horizon.
He glares at me.
“I’m just wondering if you have an idea or two about what’s happening. You don’t need to eliminate me,” I joke.
“When I have something to say, you’ll know,” he states.
My life after the divorce and my father’s letter doesn’t change much. Except Beacon and I become obsessed about the letter. Leyla said it once, this letter is a riddle. There’s a lot more to our father, his past, and our origins. We’re aware that we have to be careful while we research because whatever we ask in this town might bring unnecessary gossip.
A week after Leyla applied to the shelter, she gets a call from Thea. She has been pre-approved, and they’re coming to Baker’s Creek to see where the baby would stay if and when a mom chooses her.
We expect Thea to come, but it is a social worker named Kim Bristol. She arrives bright and early on Friday morning. Leyla is trying to act calm, but she’s almost shaking. While we walk Kim through the house, Leyla explains to her our current situation.
“I’m sorry to hear about your father,” she tells me.
Even though everyone is gone, Kim gets an idea of who we are by the pictures we have around the house, the rooms, and the way we speak about each of my brothers and sisters-in-law. Of course, Leyla has nothing but great things to say about Arden.
When we enter the nursery that Leyla is preparing, Kim touches her chest slightly. “This is gorgeous.”
After we received the call,