Chapter 14
“Because your father gave me something to bring back to my father.”
“What?”
“A small blue notebook.”
Vanessa’s face had gone pale.
Dominic continued, barely above a whisper.
“And when I returned to the house, my father was holding a second note from your mother.”
He looked at the letter in my hand.
“It said that if I ever told you I didn’t remember, you shouldn’t believe me.”
The key pressed into my palm.
“Where is the notebook now?”
I asked.
Dominic’s eyes lowered.
“I don’t know.”
A beat passed.
Then Vanessa reached into the pocket of her silver dress and pulled out a blue leather notebook, worn at the edges and secured with a faded ribbon.
“I found this in the cabinet,” she said.
On its cover, beneath years of dust, was a name I recognized immediately.
My father’s.
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PART 4(The end): The Secret He Had Been Hiding 027
The notebook seemed too small to contain the weight of my father’s name.
I reached for it, but Dominic moved first.
Not to take it away.
To steady Vanessa’s hand.
She had gone pale, her fingers tightening around the ribbon.
“I didn’t read it,” she said quickly.
“I found it behind a loose panel in the cabinet.
I brought it because I knew it belonged to you.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Did you know it was there?”
“No.”
“Do you know what’s inside?”
“No.”
“Then let me see it.”
Vanessa placed the notebook in my palm.
The leather was soft with age, the edges worn smooth by use.
My father had carried it everywhere when I was little.
I remembered it on the kitchen table beside his coffee, in the breast pocket of his coat, tucked beneath his arm when he left for work.
I had believed it contained business notes.
Maybe it did.
My thumb brushed over the ribbon.
It had once been blue, like the thread my mother used around important things.
“Let’s go to the house,” I said.
Dominic nodded.
We left the rooftop together, though none of us spoke as we descended the stairs.
The music from the hotel had faded, replaced by the soft sounds of staff clearing glasses and distant laughter from guests who had already begun forgetting the night.
Outside, the wind cut sharply across the street.
A black sedan waited at the curb.