Chapter 6
I’m sorry it reached you so late.
Mrs. Alvarez
I held the paper against my chest.
For the first time since leaving Chicago, I cried without trying to stop.
Not because the letter revealed anything.
Because Grace had still believed in us.
She had drawn a home before she understood how easily a home could disappear.
That evening, I placed the picture beside the urn.
Then I checked my phone.
There was a message from Alexander.
I had not blocked him. I had simply refused to answer.
The message contained no apology and no request that I come home.
It said:
I found something Grace made for us. I’m sending it to you. You don’t have to reply.
A photograph arrived moments later.
It showed a small cardboard box on a wooden desk. Inside were several of Grace’s drawings, a plastic bracelet, two hair clips, and a folded sheet of paper.
The paper had one line written across it.
Daddy’s promises.
I stared at the words.
Alexander sent another message.
I found it in the study. I don’t remember seeing it before.
Then, after a long pause, he wrote:
I should have remembered.
I didn’t answer.
But I saved the photograph.
The next morning, I called Mrs. Alvarez.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Emily?”
“Hello.”
There was a brief silence. “I wondered whether you received the drawing.”
“I did.”
“I’m glad.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Did Grace say anything about the box?”
Mrs. Alvarez seemed to think.
“She made it during our promise lesson.”
“What lesson?”
“We ask the children to draw something they promise to do for their families. Grace said she wanted to make a box for her father because he was always forgetting where he put things.”
A faint smile touched my mouth despite everything. “That sounds like her.”
“She said she wanted to put important promises inside, so Daddy wouldn’t forget them.”
My smile disappeared.
“What promises?”
“I don’t know. She asked whether she could take the box home. I assumed she did.”
“Did she?”
“I’m not sure.”
I looked at the photograph Alexander had sent.
The box had been found in his study.
“Was there anything else?” I asked.
Mrs. Alvarez hesitated.
“Emily, I don’t want to upset you.”
“You won’t.”
“On the afternoon Grace was waiting, she asked me whether her father was coming.”
My hand tightened around the phone.