He motioned toward the page.
“Keep reading.”
She did.
I tried to report what I had seen. The commanding officer told me the records were under review and that I should not interfere. When I persisted, I was transferred to another post.
By the time I understood how deliberately the matter had been handled, David had already been discharged and returned home. I was told that contacting him would reopen an investigation and potentially damage the benefits he had received.
That was the official reason.
Emma’s eyes narrowed.
“What was the real reason?”
I had reached the same line.
Rachel had written:
The real reason was that I was afraid.
The words seemed almost too simple to contain so much time.
I was afraid of being wrong. Afraid of losing my position. Afraid that if I spoke without proof, I would make David’s life worse instead of better. When I left the Army, I told myself I would contact him once I had gathered enough evidence.
Then I met David.
Emma’s lips parted slightly.
“You knew Dad before me?”
I looked away.
“Your mother and I met after I came home.”
Rachel’s letter continued.
David was living in a small apartment outside Tacoma. He was working nights and taking every driving job he could find. He had the kind of silence people mistake for strength.
We became close slowly. He did not talk about Germany. I did not ask often enough.
When I became pregnant, I believed that starting a family would give me the courage to tell him everything. Instead, it made me more afraid. I thought the past might follow us. I thought someone might decide that David was a liability, or that my involvement would make him a target for an investigation neither of us could control.
I felt Emma’s eyes on me.
“Is that why she left?”
I swallowed.
“Partly.”
The truth was more complicated. Rachel had left after months of arguments I could now see differently. She wanted me to pursue the matter. I wanted to keep our lives steady. She believed I was burying myself in work. I believed she was asking me to reopen a wound that had finally stopped bleeding.
