“Do you think they’re from your father?”
“I have a hard time believing that, Nina. My father and mother weren’t in love that I remember. He wasn’t the type to love anyone.”
Looking down, I read an entirely different letter that left me sure it wasn’t my father who’d written any of them.
I can’t stand even the thought of you with him anymore, Tressa. He isn’t worthy of your love. Leave him and come away with me. I may not have his money, but I can give you what he can’t or won’t. I love you and don’t want to live without you another day.
Nina reread the words to me and studied my face for my reaction. “Is this from your father?”
“I don’t think so, but if not, my mother was having an affair.”
“Maybe it was before she married your father.”
Nina’s attempt to help me think better of my mother was unnecessary. If she had cheated on my father, as far as I was concerned, all the better for her. At least she’d found love with someone.
“While you read the next one, I’m going to look for her letters to this mystery man. Maybe she had them hidden away too.”
The next letter was another plea for her to run away with the letter writer, but it did provide me with a general time period when the letter may have been written. A mention of my brother and me meant that it was definitely an affair. Closing my eyes, I silently thanked whoever this mystery man had been for at least giving her love and the chance for happiness. But had she not taken that chance because of Taylor and me?
I became convinced the name of the man my mother had fallen in love with would forever remain a secret. That wasn’t a bad thing, though. Some things should remain hidden.
The next letter’s tone was distinctly different than the others. Near the bottom of the pile, it signaled a change between him and her.
I won’t let you go. If all I can have is stolen moments with you, then I’ll take them for now. I won’t let you leave me, Tressa. We make each other happy. Just hearing you say we should end what this is nearly drove me mad last night. I won’t let you do it.
I tapped Nina on the shoulder and showed her the letter. “She wanted to leave him. Any luck finding any letters from her to him?”
“Not yet. Just pictures of you all over the place. I swear your brother must have been camera shy, Tristan.”
Folding the letter, I slid it into the envelope. “He wasn’t much for pictures. Or sports, for that matter.”
“Who took all these pictures of you and your mother? Your father?”
The memory of the one time my father attended any of my games for a mere fifteen minutes passed through my mind. “No. Rogers always took the pictures. It was him who came to see every one of my games and matches.”
Nina rested her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, honey. At least you know Rogers cared about you. I think he did.”
“I thought so too.”
She returned to searching for my mother’s letters to her mystery lover without a word, and I focused on the next to last letter in the pile next to me. My eyes scanned the lines that told of their impending break up.
Nothing is more important than love. No matter what excuse you give, I’ll give a better one to show we should be together. I won’t let you go, Tressa. I can’t. Why won’t you give in to what you know makes you happy? Come away with me. Leave him and be mine forever.
He was losing her. I sensed it in every word. He knew it too. She probably had told him their affair had to end, and he was just holding on to what used to be.
“I think I might have found something.” Nina leaned over the front of the trunk and groaned as she buried her head inside. When she straightened up, she was holding a silver tin in one hand and its lid in the other. Inside the tin were more letters but no envelopes.
She set the box between us and lifted one out for me to read. Opening it, I read one of my mother’s letters to the man she loved. Her words were tender and kind, and if my father had ever seen them, he would have made her life a living hell. Suddenly the thought that he had learned of her affair occurred to me.
I sit here alone as the boys play with the nanny and wish there was a way we could all be together, but he’ll never let me go with them and I can’t leave without them. I’m their mother. They need me. My love for you may be what keeps me going each day, but I can’t give in to that and sacrifice them.
“She stayed because of us,” I said quietly as I placed the letter back in the tin.
“That’s a good thing, Tristan. She loved you. You’re lucky to have a mother like that.”
“But she was unhappy, Nina. It’s all over these letters. She was stuck in a loveless marriage. I knew that from the moment I was old enough to compare my parents with other people’s. They never kissed or hugged or held hands. She could have had happiness if she ran away with this person.”