Page 5 of A Family Affair: The Cabin
Next month we’ll have much to discuss! It will take some time to get everything in place, but I hope to have the new “schedule” set by Lily’s birthday. Won’t that be a great present? Not as much fun as a horse ride, but I think she’ll be happy.
Finally, we will move forward with the next chapter of our lives, and we’ll do it together. I can’t believe I’m actually writing this. I love you, Miriam, with every part of me, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you.
Love Always,
Charlie
Nate:
This is not an easy letter to write. I’ve watched your hatred toward me grow each year, and I can’t say I wouldn’t feel the same if I were in your position. Giving your mother and Lily four days a month isn’t enough, is it? I could argue that memories have been built on far less, but we both know that’s a coward’s answer, just as we both know I’m a coward. They deserve far more than I’ve given them, and it has been my inability to make the difficult choice that has hurt everyone.
You have no reason to believe what I’m about to write, nor am I asking you to, for what good are words without actions? But I vow on my love for my daughters, Christine and Lily, that I will make this right. I can’t undo the past fourteen years or the animosity you feel toward me, but I can anddochoose to spend the rest of my life with my family—here, in Magdalena.
I don’t know if you will ever be able to forgive me, or if I even have the right to ask, but know this—Iwillbe living in Magdalena by Lily’s birthday and Iwillwatch her ride her very first horse. Do you think we can coexist? Is that possible? Maybe years from now, when you have a wife and children, you will be able to open your heart and look at things differently.
Until then,
Charles
Nate foldedthe letter and set it aside. “Your father was right about looking at things differently once I had a wife and children. If he could only see us now…”
“I think he’d be very proud to call you a son-in-law.”
He wasn’t sure about that, but it certainly would have been interesting. “Okay, this last letter is for you.”
Dear Christine:
Life is short. A breath of air and then it’s gone. When we lost Aunt Ellie to cancer, my whole world shifted. I had believed time was limitless and the people I loved wouldn’t die until they’d lived full lives. I thought the same for myself. But when Aunt Ellie died, it was a wakeup call. We didn’t have unlimited time, certainly not forever. All we really had was now.
Please don’t squander your time and your life on a man like Connor Pendleton. He doesn’t deserve you, doesn’t appreciate you, and doesn’t respect you. Find your own happiness. Take a day off, step away from the computer, look around. Have you wandered into the kitchen lately when you’re visiting and smelled Greta’s cooking? Or watched her roll out a pie crust? It’s as impressive a feat as choosing a good stock.
I don’t want to see you “stuck” in a life you don’t want with a man you don’t love. Duty is a cruel taskmaster. Do not be governed by it. Our company was built on performance, commitment, and expectation. But to what? Money? Power? Advancement? Your Uncle Harry could not live that life and your grandfather could not accept that.
Do not let others define you. We are all human with weaknesses and frailty, me more than most. My shortcomings are not yours. My failings do not belong to you and are not because of you. There is a whole world outside of Blacksworth and Company Investments. Explore it. Drive to the country. Eat a bowl of beef stew. Look around. Listen. Live your life, not mine, not your mother’s, not anyone else’s.
I love you, Christine. I have loved you from the moment I saw you and will love you until I draw my last breath.
I will see you soon!
Love,
Dad
Nate foldedthe last letter and placed it with the others on the couch. He would have rather done three straight days of inventory than read those letters. Too much emotion, too much pain, too much damn speculation and not knowing. His wife’s voice sifted through his thoughts, pulled him back.
“He really was going to leave us.”
Such sadness, such resignation. Nate cursed the irresponsibility of a man who was supposed to be all about honor and decency. Right. As long as nobody dug too deep, and life didn’t get too complicated for him. Then what? He’d straddle the problem, the onehe’dcreated and let both sides dangle “You don’t know what your father would have done. People say they’re going to do things all the time, but how many get around to actually doing it? There’s the guy who’s going to write a book, or quit the job he hates, or ride cross-country in a motor home. And what about the woman who vows she’ll leave the husband who’s cheated on her so many times she doesn’t count anymore? They all talk big, but when it comes time to act, they can’t do it.”
The sniff said the tears were coming. “Part of me wants to think he’d make the tough choice and follow his heart, but another part feels…abandoned.”
“I know.” Charles Blacksworth had abandoned Miriam and Lily, too. Maybe he’d been about to change all of that, who would ever know? “Whatever his plans, they died with him on that icy road.”
“It’s obvious from a few of the references he made that he wrote the letters shortly before he died.”
“True, but we’re never going to know if he planned to mail them.”
Christine eased her head from his chest, met his gaze. “What other reason would he have to write them?”
