On the night before Sophie left for university, Emma found her standing beside the old family photographs.
“Are you nervous?” Emma asked.
“A little.”
“That’s normal.”
Sophie turned and smiled.
“Do you know what I keep thinking about?”
“What?”
“That letter from Grandpa. If he hadn’t left it, we might never have known the truth.”
Emma nodded.
“That’s possible.”
“Do you wish he’d told you sooner?”
“Yes,” Emma answered honestly. “I do.”
Sophie considered this.
“Then maybe the best thing we can do with what he left us is make sure we don’t repeat the same mistake.”
Emma felt tears rise in her eyes.
“What mistake is that?”
“Deciding that someone else is too fragile to know the truth about their own life.”
Emma pulled her daughter into a hug.
Outside, the evening settled over the neighborhood. Inside, the old photographs remained on the shelf, and her father’s letter rested in a drawer where it no longer had to be hidden.
