Chapter 17 - Erin's Letter
The envelope had my mother's handwriting.
Dad's name on the front.
The seal had been opened.
Lauren admitted she found it years earlier in an old storage box after moving into the house.
She kept it.
Why?
"Because I read it."
I stared at her.
"You had no right."
"I know."
The letter was written near the end of Mom's treatment.
Michael,
If Claire grows up without me, please don't turn guilt into permission. She needs love, not a life without limits. And if you love someone again, make sure that person understands Claire is not an obstacle to your new family. She is part of it.
I had to stop reading.
Lauren wiped her eyes.
"I knew I wasn't living up to it."
"So you hid it?"
She nodded.
"At first. Later I hated the letter because it felt like she was judging me from the grave."
I was furious.
But I also understood something ugly and human.
Lauren had spent years competing with a dead woman.
Nobody asked her to.
She built the competition herself.
"Why did you sabotage me?"
She looked down.
"Because every time you succeeded, Mia saw what she wasn't doing. And every time your father was proud of you, I was scared he regretted marrying me."
"So you punished me."
"Yes."
No excuse.
No dramatic denial.
Just yes.
That was almost harder to hear.
She agreed to repay specific funds as part of the divorce settlement and cooperate with correcting the financial records. Separate legal consequences remained outside my control.
Then she said:
"Mia wants to live with Michael for senior year."
I looked at her.
"How do you feel about that?"
Her mouth trembled.
"Like I've lost my daughter."
I thought of Grandma's missing letters.
"Maybe stop making love feel like custody."
Lauren flinched.
Good.
Before she left, she pushed my mother's letter toward me.
"Give this to your dad."
I shook my head.
May you like
"You kept it from him. You give it to him."
For once, I refused to carry someone else's difficult conversation.
