Robert had left, but he had also come back.
Claire’s voice hardened.
“Then she told me Robert didn’t want me anymore.”
The room went quiet.
I felt something cold settle inside me.
Robert had left, but he had also come back. Between his guilt and his mother’s anger, one decision had hardened into decades of separation.
“So how did the letters start?”
“Why didn’t you meet?”
Claire gave a sad smile.
“When I was twenty-nine, I found him.”
“Why didn’t you meet?”
“We nearly did.”
She opened a wooden box sitting beside her chair.
Inside were stacks of envelopes.
All blue ink.
I recognized Robert’s handwriting immediately.
“Instead, I wrote first.”
She handed me one.
I recognized Robert’s handwriting immediately.
Claire said, “I told him I remembered everything. The lunches. School. Birthday presents he couldn’t afford.”
She paused.
“I also told him I remembered him leaving.”
