Both sides covered in her handwriting, small and tight, like she was trying to fit an entire life onto two pages.
I read the first line.
*Mom, if you're reading this, I didn't make it.
I'm sorry I wasn't brave enough to tell you this myself.*
My throat closed.
"Take your time," Diane said quietly.
I couldn't speak.
I kept reading.
*His name is Carter Welles.
He was twenty-six when we met.
I was seventeen.
I know what you're thinking, and you're right.
But I loved him.
I thought he loved me.*
*When I told him I was pregnant, he didn't get angry.
He got very calm.
That was worse.
He said if I told anyone who the father was, his family would make sure I never had a stable life again.
He said they had lawyers.
He said I was nobody.*
*I believed him.
So I said nothing.*
*But I wrote everything down.
Dates.
Conversations.
A voice message he left me that I saved.
I gave everything to Diane to keep safe.
She knows where it all is.*
*I don't know if any of it matters now.
But if he ever comes near my baby, it will matter.
Use it.*
I lowered the letter.
Diane was watching me carefully.
"Carter Welles," I said.
She nodded once.
"She was seventeen when they met."
"Yes."
I folded the letter back along its creases.
My hands had stopped shaking.
Something colder had replaced the trembling.
"You said he's been watching."
