The final paragraph was written in a trembling hand.
If Gideon ever learns the truth, I pray he understands that my love for him was real, even when my actions were unforgivable.
Gideon lowered the letter.
Rosalie watched his face.
She had expected anger.
Instead, she saw a man grieving for the father he had believed he knew and the father he had never truly been allowed to understand.
She placed her hand over his.
“You don’t have to forgive him today,” she said softly.
Gideon looked at her lips, then reached for the notebook.
I don’t know whether I can forgive him.
Rosalie wrote back:
You don’t have to decide now.
He nodded.
For the first time, the past was no longer a locked room that everyone insisted he must never enter.
He could finally look inside.
Silas Vane was arrested several weeks later.
Arthur Bell had preserved enough documents to establish that the doctor had concealed the original accident and continued to interfere with Gideon’s treatment.
