season2 .. Your Masterpiece Lives On

Not because he had failed to try.

But because grief makes people desperate to put their pain somewhere.

She told Julian that if he had gone into Lily’s room sooner, their daughter would still be alive.

Julian knew it wasn’t true.

But he believed it anyway.

His wife eventually left him.

Caleb went with her.

And Julian spent the next forty-five years trying to find his son.

I turned another page.

There were newspaper clippings.

Photographs.

Addresses.

Names.

Dates.

Letters that had been returned unopened.

Julian had searched everywhere.

Chicago.

Detroit.

St. Louis.

Denver.

California.

Even Canada.

He had hired private investigators when he could afford them.

He had followed every possible lead.

And every time he found a dead end, he wrote the same sentence in his notebook.

My son is still somewhere in this world.

I wiped my eyes.

Then I saw something that made my heart stop.

A photograph had been taped to one of the pages.

It showed two five-year-old children standing beside their father.

Caleb was grinning.

Lily was wearing the red dress.

And Julian was smiling at both of them.

On the back of the photograph, Julian had written:

My masterpiece.

I pressed my fingers against the picture.