Not just older.
Tired.
As if he had spent years carrying something too heavy for one person.
I finally broke the silence.
“You wrote those letters.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t Daniel receive them?”
Richard looked at me.
“Because you never gave them to him.”
My chest tightened.
“I never saw them.”
“I know.”
“Then who did?”
He hesitated.
“Someone else.”
“Who?”
Richard looked toward Sophie.
“Did she show you the letter?”
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly.
“Then there’s no reason to hide it anymore.”
I leaned forward.
“Richard, stop speaking in riddles.”
He took a deep breath.
“When I left, Daniel was nine years old.”
“I remember.”
“You remember me packing a suitcase.”
“Yes.”
“You remember me walking out the front door.”
“Yes.”
“You remember Daniel crying.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“I remember everything.”
Richard looked down.
“But you don’t remember what happened before that.”
I frowned.
“What happened?”
“The night before I left, Daniel came into our bedroom.”
I stared at him.
“He was crying.”
Richard’s voice cracked.
“He told me he was scared.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
I recoiled.
“No.”
“He said you were angry all the time.”
“I was exhausted.”
“I know.”
“He said you were fighting.”
“We were.”
“He said he heard you telling someone that you’d take him away.”
My mouth went dry.
“I never said that.”
Richard nodded.
“I know that now.”
“Then why did you believe him?”
“Because he was nine.”
Richard rubbed his face.
“I thought he was protecting you.”
“Protecting me from what?”
Richard didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said,
“From me.”
I stared at him.
“You thought I was afraid of you?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I thought you were afraid of what would happen if I stayed.”
The words made no sense.
“Richard, what are you talking about?”
He looked at me.
“I wasn’t the one you were afraid of.”
Silence.
Then he said a name.
A name I hadn’t heard in twenty years.
“Victor.”
My blood ran cold.
Victor.
My older brother.
My brother who had died when Daniel was ten.
I stared at Richard.
“What does Victor have to do with any of this?”
Richard looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“Everything.”
I couldn’t speak.
Richard continued.
“Victor had been coming to the house.”
“I know.”
“You thought he was helping you.”
“He was my brother.”
“He told you he was helping with money.”
“He did.”
“He told you he was helping because I was irresponsible.”
I said nothing.
Richard leaned closer.
“He was lying.”
My hands began to tremble.
“About what?”
“About everything.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small photograph.
He placed it on the table.
I looked down.
It was the photograph Sophie had mentioned.
There I was.
Richard beside me.
Daniel standing in front of us.
And behind us…
Victor.
But there was something else.
A second woman stood beside him.
I stared at her.
I knew her.
My breath caught.
“That’s impossible.”
Richard nodded.
“You know her.”
I whispered her name.
“Elaine.”
Richard nodded.
Elaine had been my closest friend before everything fell apart.
She had disappeared from our lives shortly before Richard left.
I had always assumed she’d moved away.
But she hadn’t.
She had been having an affair with Victor.
And somehow, Daniel had seen them.
I looked at Richard.
“Daniel knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He walked downstairs one night.”
My heart shattered.
“He saw Victor and Elaine together.”
I covered my mouth.
“He was nine.”
Richard nodded.
“He didn’t understand what he was seeing. He only knew that Victor told him never to tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor threatened him.”
My entire body went cold.
“What did he say?”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“He told Daniel that if he told you, something bad would happen to you.”
I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, memories began returning.
Daniel becoming quiet.
Daniel refusing to sleep alone.
Daniel asking me whether people could disappear.
Daniel crying whenever Victor came to the house.
I had thought he was simply going through a difficult phase.
I had been wrong.
“So when Daniel came to you that night…”
“He begged me to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor had told him that if I stayed, he would hurt you.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“And you believed him?”
“I believed my son was terrified.”
Richard wiped his eyes.
“So I left.”
“But why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Victor told me that if I spoke, Daniel would pay for it.”
I stared at him.
“You could have told me later.”
“I tried.”
“The letters?”
“Yes.”
“You wrote to Daniel.”
“And to you.”
I looked at him.
“To me?”
He nodded.
“I wrote everything down.”
“Where are those letters?”
“Victor found them.”
My heart dropped.
“He intercepted them?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He had access to your mail.”
I remembered.
Victor had been helping me with bills.
He had my spare key.
He knew everything about our finances.
He knew everything about our family.
I suddenly understood.
“He made me believe you abandoned us.”
Richard nodded.
“He made you hate me.”
“And Daniel?”
“He made Daniel believe the same thing.”
I looked down at my son’s letter.
Dad didn’t leave because he stopped loving me.
Tears blurred the words.
“He knew?”
Richard nodded.
“Daniel found out three months ago.”
“From whom?”
“From Victor.”
I looked up sharply.
“Victor is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Richard hesitated.
“Victor left a confession.”
I felt the world tilt beneath me.
“A confession?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In a safety deposit box.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Daniel asked me not to.”
“Why?”
Richard looked toward the dining room.
“Because the confession contained something else.”
My heart began pounding.
“What?”
Richard’s eyes filled with tears.
“It wasn’t only about what happened twenty years ago.”
He paused.