It came from my husband, Silas Ashford.
I stared at the words.
My father had not simply helped conceal the mine accident.
He had ordered the operation that caused it.
I continued reading.
Silas had been responsible for arranging unauthorized work in the lower galleries.
He secretly accepted payments from Vane in exchange for falsifying equipment records and concealing dangerous changes to the drainage system.
Daniel Rook discovered the scheme.
He threatened to report both men.
Silas decided to destroy the evidence before the next inspection.
But the explosion spread farther than expected.
Workers were still underground.
And a child had been left inside the mine office.
I reached the final paragraph.
My mother’s handwriting became uneven.
Silas believed our son was safely outside with me.
He did not know Merrick had crawled back into the office after dropping his mitten.
I saw young Gideon Rook run toward the building when smoke began pouring through the doorway.
My eyes blurred.
The boy came out carrying my child.
I stopped breathing.
Then the second blast struck.
I read the line again.
And again.
The room seemed to disappear around me.
Gideon had lost his hearing while saving my brother’s life.
Merrick.
The brother who had mocked him.
The brother who had helped poison him.
The brother who had placed a leech inside his injured ear for money.
He was the child Gideon had carried through the fire.
The revelation was so terrible that I could hardly bear it.
My mother had known.
She had kept the mitten.
She had tried to preserve the truth.
And my father had allowed Gideon to grow up beneath the shame of a disaster he had helped cause.
I looked at the final lines.
Daniel Rook went back for the trapped workers.
