Chapter 2: The Woman With His Eyes
My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I tore open the envelope.
Inside was a single folded letter — and a photograph.
The photograph showed Richard as a young man.
Standing next to him was a woman I had never seen before.
And between them…
was a little girl.
I looked up at the lawyer.
"Who are they?"
He didn't answer right away.
He just watched me, like he was waiting for something to break inside me.
Then he said quietly:
"Read the letter first."
I unfolded it.
Richard's handwriting — the same handwriting I had seen on birthday cards and grocery lists for five years — covered the page.
The first line stopped me cold.
*"By the time you read this, you will know that I was never who I told you I was."*
My throat tightened.
I kept reading.
Halfway down the page, one sentence made me sit down on the floor right there in the doorway.
The lawyer crouched beside me.
"There's one more thing," he said.
"Someone has been waiting outside since this morning.
Richard asked me to bring her in only after you read the letter."
He stood and opened the front door.
May you like
A woman stepped inside.
She looked at me with Richard's eyes.
