My hands were shaking as I opened the first one. “To my beautiful little girl,” it began, “I think of you every day. Know that I loved you enough to let you go.”
Tears stained the ink as I read his words.
Daniel's voice broke the silence. "He's in the hospital. He wanted you to get them. He was waiting for you."
I couldn't breathe.
The woman who rejected me had always loved me.
She hadn't been cruel: she had been afraid.
That night, I entered a hospital room where my mother lay weak but smiling. “You came,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face.
And in that moment, the years of pain melted away. Because, no matter what happened, I was his daughter.
And finally it was my mother.
