I felt exhausted.
“I won’t stop the investigation,” I said.
He nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
“No.”
I looked straight into his eyes.
“You don’t.”
He waited.
“You thought taking everything from me would make me disappear.”
I stood up.
“But all you did was teach me how to survive without you.”
My father looked away.
Richard stepped beside me.
“There is one final matter.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He handed me a small envelope.
“This was your grandfather’s last letter.”
My hands trembled as I opened it.
There were only a few lines.
Nathan,
If you’re reading this, then you survived the thirty days.
I wish I could have protected you from everything your father did.
But I couldn’t give you a life without hardship. I could only give you the chance to build one after it.
Remember this: You were never unwanted. You were never forgotten. And you were never the burden they made you believe you were.
You were my grandson.
And I was always proud of you.
I had to stop reading.
For eighteen years, I’d waited for someone to tell me that I mattered.
It turned out someone had been trying to tell me all along.
I carefully folded the letter.
Then I looked toward the board.
“I’ll accept the inheritance.”
My father’s head lifted.
“But I’m keeping one condition.”
Margaret smiled.
“What condition?”
“I finish high school.”
Several people around the table smiled.
“And after that?”
I looked toward the windows.
The city stretched out beneath us.
For the first time, it didn’t seem intimidating.
It looked like an opportunity.
“After that,” I said, “I decide what this company becomes.”
Three months later, I graduated.
First in my class.
My father wasn’t there.
Neither was my stepmother.
