Six weeks later, Daniel called Adrian from a town three hours away.
“There is someone you should meet.”
Adrian was standing in the kitchen when the call came.
He glanced at Evelyn.
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Her name is Ruth Calder.”
Adrian frowned.
“I don't know her.”
“You weren't supposed to.”
“Why?”
“She worked at the hospital the night you were born.”
Adrian stopped moving.
“Does she remember Maria?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn heard enough to understand.
“Go.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You're sure?”
“I spent twenty-nine years not knowing. Don't waste another minute because you're worried about me.”
He smiled.
“I'll call when I get there.”
The drive took nearly four hours because of road construction.
Ruth lived in a small white house at the end of a quiet street.
She was eighty-one.
She walked slowly but stood straight.
When she opened the door, she looked at Adrian for a long moment.
Then she said, “You have Victor's eyes.”
Adrian felt his throat tighten.
“You knew him?”
“I knew him before anyone called him dangerous.”
She invited him inside.
The house smelled of tea and old books.
A framed photograph of Maria stood on the mantel.
Adrian stopped.
“You kept her picture.”
Ruth smiled sadly.
“She asked me to.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew she might not come back.”
Adrian sat.
Ruth brought tea.
He didn't drink it.
He was afraid that if he moved too quickly, the moment would disappear.
“Tell me about her.”
Ruth sat opposite him.
“She was frightened.”
“I've heard that.”
“She was also brave.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
“What happened the night I was born?”
Ruth folded her hands.
“Your mother was in labor for eleven hours.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Sounds like her.”
“You don't remember her.”
“No.”
“But she talked about you constantly.”
“What did she say?”
“She said your hands were tiny.”
Adrian looked down at his own hands.
Ruth continued.
“She said you held her finger so tightly that she couldn't pull away.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
A strange image formed in his mind.
Not a memory.
Something his imagination built from her words.
Ruth leaned forward.
“Thomas arrived before the birth.”
“Was he my father?”
“He believed he was.”
“But Victor?”
“Victor arrived later.”
Adrian looked up.
“Did they meet?”
“Yes.”
“Did they fight?”
Ruth nodded.
“Thomas wanted Maria and the baby protected. Victor wanted to take you away.”
“Why?”
“He believed Thomas had betrayed him.”
“Had he?”
“Not in the way Victor thought.”
Adrian listened.
“Maria had asked Thomas to raise you temporarily.”
“Temporarily?”
“Yes.”
Adrian frowned.
“What changed?”
Ruth's expression softened.
“Maria realized she could never safely return.”
“So Thomas raised me.”
“Yes.”
“Did she regret it?”
“Every day.”
Adrian looked down.
“That hurts.”
“It should.”
He looked at her.
Ruth continued.
“Love does not always prevent pain.”
She stood and walked to a cabinet.
From inside, she removed a sealed envelope.
“I was supposed to give you this if you ever came.”
Adrian took it.
His name was written across the front.
Not Thomas's handwriting.
Maria's.
He opened it.
Inside was a hospital photograph.
He was asleep in a bassinet.
Maria sat beside him.
Thomas stood behind her.
Victor stood in the doorway.
All three adults were looking at the baby.
Adrian turned the photograph over.
Maria had written:
Three people love him. Only one will know how to stay.
Adrian read it twice.
“Who did she mean?”
Ruth smiled.
“Thomas.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Why didn't she give this to me herself?”
“She tried.”
“When?”
“Two years before she died.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
“She came back?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“To the house.”
“What happened?”
Ruth's face tightened.
“Thomas met her.”
Adrian stared.
“My mother met Thomas again?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he tell Mum?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian understood immediately.
There was another secret.
He called Evelyn.
“Mom.”
She answered.
“Are you all right?”
“Did Dad ever tell you Maria came back?”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said, “No.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Ruth watched him.
“I found someone who says she met him.”
Evelyn's voice became quiet.
“What did she tell you?”
“That Maria came to see Dad two years before she died.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“Mom?”
“I believe you.”
“Are you angry?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I know now that Thomas kept secrets when he thought they were necessary.”
Adrian sighed.
“He saw her.”
“Yes.”
“And he never told you.”
“Yes.”
“Doesn't that hurt?”
“Of course.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
“But I'm not going to let his silence erase what she did.”
Evelyn's voice softened.
“Good.”
After the call, Ruth handed him another document.
It was a letter from Thomas.
Adrian recognized the handwriting immediately.
I saw Maria again.
She wanted to take Adrian.
I could not let her.
Not because I believed she was unfit.
Because the people hunting her would have followed.
I promised her I would protect him.
She asked me whether I would let him know the truth someday.
I said yes.
I failed her.
Adrian stopped reading.
Ruth waited.
“She knew,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“She knew Dad loved me.”
“Yes.”
“She trusted him.”
“Yes.”
Adrian folded the letter.
“What happened to Maria?”
Ruth looked toward the window.
“She left the house alive.”
Adrian looked up.
“Then what?”
“She was followed.”
“By whom?”
Ruth shook her head.
“I never learned.”
Adrian stood.
“But Thomas believed she was killed.”
“Yes.”
“Was she?”
Ruth looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Adrian stared.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
The answer changed everything.
Not because it proved Maria had survived.
It did not.
But because one more uncertainty had entered a story Adrian thought he finally understood.
Before leaving, Ruth gave him the photograph.
“Take it.”
Adrian held it carefully.
“Why?”
“Because it belongs to you.”
He thanked her.
Outside, he stood beside his car.
The photograph remained in his hand.
Three adults.
One child.
Three versions of love.
He called Evelyn again.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Dad wrote that he saw Maria.”
“I know.”
“And Ruth doesn't know if Maria died.”
Evelyn was silent.
Then she said, “Do you want to search?”
Adrian looked down the road.
“Yes.”
“Then search.”
“You'll come?”
Evelyn smiled through the phone.
“I wouldn't miss it.”
Adrian ended the call.
He placed the photograph carefully inside his wallet.
Then he drove home.
For the first time, he was not searching for the father whose blood ran through his veins.
He was searching for the woman whose decision had made his life possible.
And somewhere beneath that search was a question Thomas had never been able to answer.
Had Maria really died?
Or had she simply disappeared because staying alive meant staying away?
Click Here to continue read next: PART11: The Search for Maria Reopened an Old Wound, and Evelyn Discovered That Thomas Had Left One Last Choice for the Family He Could Not Finish Protecting
She Had Invited Them Into Her Husband’s House for One Last Goodbye, but the Young Couple Arrived Expecting Something Far More Valuable
Part 10 of 16
