Chapter 9 - The Letter David Left Behind

The weeks after Miller's Ridge were quieter than Eleanor expected.

Not peaceful.

Quiet.

There is a difference.

Marcus survived his gunshot wound and was charged with kidnapping, assault, conspiracy, evidence tampering, and attempted murder.

His father was dead, but the old dental records were enough to expose the coroner's fraud.

Michael's company accounts were frozen.

The lithium sale collapsed.

Peter's sealed statement became public after Daniel consented.

Samuel Reed's remains were identified through surviving family DNA from a niece in Oregon.

She flew to Willow Creek for the burial.

Her name was Nancy.

She was sixty-three.

At the graveside, she hugged Eleanor.

"My mother waited for him."

Eleanor closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Nancy looked at Thomas.

"So did his sister."

Thomas nodded.

"I remember Ruth."

"She thought Samuel ran away."

"He didn't."

"No."

Nancy looked at the coffin.

"That matters."

Eleanor understood.

Truth cannot return the dead.

It can return their name.

After the funeral, Thomas asked Eleanor to walk with him.

They went to the river.

Same river.

Different banks.

A new pedestrian bridge crossed where they once waded barefoot.

Thomas leaned on his cane.

"Rebecca wants me to leave with her next week."

Eleanor looked at him.

"Will you?"

"I don't know."

"Why tell me?"

"Because I don't want to disappear again."

She stopped.

He did too.

"Thomas."

"Yes?"

"You are not required to report your movements to me."

"No."

"Then why?"

"Because I want you to know where I am."

The answer hurt in an unexpected way.

Eleanor looked toward the water.

"What do you want from me?"

"Nothing you don't choose."

"That sounds rehearsed."

"I've had fifty years."

She almost smiled.

Thomas continued.

"I don't expect us to become twenty-two again."

"Good. My knees object."

He laughed.

"I don't expect you to forgive me."

"Good."

"I don't expect you to love me."

Eleanor looked at him.

He swallowed.

"But I need to tell you that I never stopped."

She closed her eyes.

"Thomas."

"I know."

"No, you don't."

"Then tell me."

She faced him.

"I loved David."

"I believe you."

"I loved him deeply."

"I know."

"He held our son when he died."

Thomas's eyes filled.

"He sat beside me through two miscarriages."

"I'm sorry."

"He raised our daughter. He cared for my mother when she became ill. He never once made me feel guilty for having loved you first."

Thomas nodded.

"He sounds like a good man."

"He was."

Eleanor's voice shook.

"If I let myself feel anything for you now, I am afraid it turns my life with him into something less."

Thomas looked horrified.

"No."

"You don't get to say no."

"You're right."

He breathed.

"But may I say what I think?"

She nodded.

"I think loving someone after loss does not edit the person before."

Eleanor looked at him.

"Margaret taught me that."

"Your wife."

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

Thomas smiled sadly.

"She said, 'If I die first and you finally go find Eleanor, don't make me haunt you for being stupid twice.'"

Eleanor laughed.

Then cried.

Thomas did too.

They stood by the river, two old people grieving spouses who had been kinder than the ghosts between them.

Eleanor whispered, "I wish I had met her."

"She would have liked you."

"That seems unlikely."

"She had terrible taste. She married me."

Eleanor laughed again.

That evening, the family gathered at Bell farm.

Daniel had a court order recognizing Thomas as presumptive legal owner pending final probate.

The old will condition was ruled suspended by fraud and unlawful interference.

The judge did not require Thomas to marry Eleanor.

Clara celebrated that loudly.

"Thank God. Forced geriatric marriage by probate would be a terrible legal precedent."

Eleanor threw a napkin at her.

Rebecca laughed.

Thomas asked, "What do we do with the farm?"

Daniel stared.

"We?"

"You grew up here."

"It isn't mine."

"It was your home."

Daniel looked toward the window.

"My father stole it."

"Your father inherited a lie."

"He knew."

"Later."

Daniel said nothing.

Thomas continued.

"I don't want forty million dollars."

Rebecca almost choked.

"Dad."

"I don't."

"You live on a teacher's pension."

"I have enough."

"You drive a twelve-year-old Subaru."

"It runs."

Clara looked at Rebecca.

"I think stubbornness is contagious."

Eleanor said, "What do you want?"

Thomas looked toward the north ridge.

"Samuel Reed Memorial Preserve."

Everyone went quiet.

Daniel whispered, "The whole property?"

"Not the farmhouse. Maybe fifty acres around it for family use. The rest conservation."

Rebecca stared.

"You're giving away forty million dollars."

"Land caused enough trouble."

Eleanor said, "Land didn't."

Thomas looked at her.

"People did."

"Yes."

He nodded.

"Then people can choose differently."

Daniel's eyes filled.

"My father would have hated that."

Thomas smiled.

"Then we may be onto something."

Clara asked, "What about the lithium?"

"No mining."

Rebecca groaned theatrically.

"I flew across three states to discover my father is morally responsible."

Thomas looked at her.

"You can still slap me again."

"I might."

There was laughter.

Real laughter.

Later, Eleanor wandered into the old study.

Peter's journals were stacked on the desk.

Daniel had received copies from police.

One page was marked with Eleanor's name.

She read it.

October 23, 1976.

Today was supposed to be Tom's wedding day.

I went to the church even though there was no wedding.

Eleanor was there alone.

I watched from across the street.

I wanted to tell her Tom was alive.

Michael was beside me.

He said if I spoke, Samuel's death would become mine.

I believed him.

Coward.

Eleanor sat.

She remembered that day.

She had gone to St. Matthew's because she did not know where else to put the grief.

She had sat in the back pew and imagined Thomas walking through the door.

Peter had been across the street.

Alive.

Watching.

Another page.

1982.

I found Tom.

He has a daughter.

He was laughing.

I had practiced the confession all the way to Ohio.

Then I saw the child run into his arms.

I thought of Eleanor married to David.

I decided truth would destroy two families.

Coward again.

Eleanor closed the journal.

Daniel stood in the doorway.

"I hated him after I read that."

She looked up.

"Why?"

"He knew all along."

"Yes."

"He could have fixed it."

"Maybe."

Daniel frowned.

"Maybe?"

"Truth doesn't repair time."

"No."

"But he could have stopped more lies."

"Yes."

Daniel sat.

"Do you forgive him?"

"I'm not the person who needs to."

"Thomas?"

"And himself."

Daniel looked down.

"Too late."

"Maybe."

He smiled sadly.

"You say maybe a lot."

"I'm learning certainty caused enough trouble."

Clara appeared.

"Grandma, there's someone here."

Eleanor's heart stopped.

Clara immediately raised both hands.

"Not another dead person."

Eleanor laughed.

"Who?"

"A woman."

"Name?"

"Margaret Hayes."

Eleanor stood.

Her daughter.

Clara's mother.

Eleanor frowned.

"She wasn't coming until tomorrow."

"She changed her flight."

They went outside.

Margaret Hayes stood beside a rental car.

Fifty-two.

Eleanor's only living child.

She looked at Thomas.

Then at her mother.

Then back at Thomas.

"So."

Eleanor swallowed.

"Margaret."

Her daughter crossed her arms.

"The dead boyfriend."

Thomas whispered, "I prefer Thomas."

Margaret looked at him.

"My father spent forty years hearing about you in every silence Mom thought no one noticed."

Eleanor went pale.

"Margaret."

"What?"

Thomas looked stricken.

Margaret continued.

"Dad knew she loved him. Dad also knew she loved you. Human beings can manage two truths."

Eleanor stared at her daughter.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

Margaret laughed.

"Because I thought he was dead."

Clara murmured, "Reasonable."

Margaret walked to Thomas.

He looked nervous.

She held out her hand.

"Margaret Hayes."

He shook it.

"Thomas Bell."

"My mother named me after her mother, not your wife, correct?"

Thomas blinked.

Rebecca burst out laughing.

Eleanor covered her face.

"Yes."

Margaret nodded.

"Good. This family is already complicated enough."

Then she hugged Eleanor.

"I came because Clara said you were pretending not to need anyone."

Eleanor whispered, "Traitor."

Clara smiled.

Margaret pulled back.

"Dad would want you happy."

Eleanor's eyes filled.

"You don't know that."

"I do."

"How?"

Margaret reached into her purse.

A sealed envelope.

"Because he wrote this before he died."

Eleanor stared.

"David?"

"Yes."

"To me?"

Margaret nodded.

"He gave it to me and said only to give it to you if Thomas Bell ever came back."

Everyone went silent.

Eleanor almost laughed.

"Your father believed dead men returned?"

Margaret looked at Thomas.

"No."

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Then at Eleanor.

"He knew Thomas was alive."