Chapter 2: The Backpack and the Phone Call
Part 2 —
My hands were shaking as I unzipped the backpack.
Inside was a thick envelope, a small leather notebook, and a photograph.
The photo stopped me cold.
It was Julian — but not the frail man I had known.
This Julian was younger, standing in front of a large stone house, wearing a suit.
Beside him stood a woman and two grown children.
"He had a family?" I whispered.
The lawyer nodded slowly.
"He did.
A wife.
A son.
A daughter."
"Then why—" My voice broke.
"Why did he ask me?"
The old man was quiet for a moment.
"Because none of them came," he said.
"Not once.
In four months, not a single visit."
I looked back at the photograph.
Julian was smiling in it — the same gentle smile I had seen every day in that hospital room.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
The first line made my breath catch.
*Nora, by the time you read this, you will already know more about love than my own children ever chose to show me.*
Then my phone rang.
An unknown number.
I answered without thinking.
A woman's voice came through, sharp and cold.
"I don't know who you are," she said.
"But whatever my father left you — it belongs to this family.
And we will be coming for it."
---
What was in that letter — and what did Julian's family want?
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What Nora found next changed everything she thought she understood about those seven days.
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