“Your father left this for you.”

Caleb didn’t move.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

Then he looked at the notebook.

And his face collapsed.

“My father is dead?”

I nodded.

He stepped backward.

One hand went to his mouth.

And then, for the first time, I watched a grown man cry like a little boy.

---

Chapter 10 — What Caleb Remembered

Caleb invited me inside.

We sat at a small kitchen table while the afternoon light moved slowly across the floor.

For a long time, he said nothing.

Then he asked me the question I had been expecting.

“Was he happy?”

I thought about Julian in that hospital room.

The gentle smile.

The tired eyes.

The way he had held my hand.

“Yes,” I said.

“At the end, I think he was.”

Caleb looked down.

“Did he talk about Lily?”

“All the time.”

He closed his eyes.

“I barely remember her.”

That surprised me.

“You don’t?”

“I remember the red dress.”

He swallowed.

“I remember Dad making it.”

His eyes filled.

“And I remember being jealous because he spent so much time sewing hers.”

I smiled through my tears.

“That’s what brothers do.”

He laughed softly.

The first laugh I had heard from him.