Chapter 2: The Letters That Came Back
For one heartbeat, I forgot the hundreds of people watching.
Then I ran down the steps.
“Mom!”
Angela opened her arms, and I fell against her, shaking.
“I’m sorry, Maya,” she whispered.
“I tried to reach you.”
Behind us, a chair scraped sharply.
“You shouldn’t be here, Angela,” my father said.
I pulled away and stared at him.
“You knew where she was?”
Vanessa rushed into the aisle.
“Don’t listen to her.
She abandoned you.”
“No,” Angela said firmly.
“Someone made sure Maya believed that.”
The room fell silent.
Angela reached into her bag and pulled out a thick bundle of envelopes tied with a faded ribbon.
“I sent one every birthday,” she said.
“Every Christmas.
Every graduation milestone.
They were all returned.”
My name was written across each envelope in her handwriting.
Vanessa’s face went pale.
“Those prove nothing.”
Angela removed one final document and held it toward my father.
“Then perhaps this will.”
My father stared at the signature at the bottom.
His hands began to tremble.
I stepped closer.
“Dad…
what did you sign?”
He opened his mouth, but Vanessa suddenly grabbed for the paper.
Angela pulled it away and looked directly at me.
“Maya, before you read this, you need to know why your father really kept us apart.”
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What did Maya’s father sign, and why is Vanessa desperate to hide it?
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