“Mom… you don’t have to—”
I ignored her and opened it.
***
“Martin,
I don’t know why I’m writing back. I told myself I wouldn’t. But you keep writing as if I’m still part of something I walked away from. Tell her I’m fine. Or don’t. Maybe it’s better if she thinks I don’t care. But I do, more than I should. I just don’t know how to fix something that’s been broken this long.
—Dolly.”Generated image
I ignored her and opened it.
I pressed the letter to my chest.
All those years and that silence. She had been right there.
Writing back.
Missing me.
***
“I don’t understand,” Jane said quietly. “Why didn’t Dad tell you?”
“I don’t know.”
But deep down… I think I did.
Because if my husband had told me, I would have had to make a choice.
And I wasn’t ready for a long time.
“Why didn’t Dad tell you?”
***
That night, after Jane left, I sat in the living room with the letters spread out across the table.
I read letter after letter, watching the years pass between them as Martin quietly carried something I didn’t even know existed. He never pushed or demanded anything from Dolly, just kept her in the loop.
Jane’s wedding.
Jake’s graduation.
The grandchildren’s births.
Even small things.
“She started humming again in the kitchen. Reminded me of when we were all younger.”
I stopped there, feeling emotional.
He never pushed or demanded anything.
***
By morning, I knew I had to do something.
So I called Jake. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, Mom. You okay?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I need your help.”
That was all it took.
“I’ll be there in 20.”
***
My son arrived with coffee and that steady way about him, the same one his father had.
I told him everything.
“I need your help.”
When I finished, Jake exhaled slowly.
“Well,” he said, “guess we know what Dad was doing all those times he said he was ‘running errands.’”
I let out a small, broken laugh.
“Yeah.”
He picked up one of the envelopes.
“Do we have an address?”
“Several,” I said. “But some of them are old.”
“Then we start with the most recent one.”
“Do we have an address?”
***
An hour later, we were in the car. Jake was driving while I held the last letter Dolly had sent.
It was dated just a few months ago.
I kept rehearsing what I would say.
***
When we arrived at our destination, three hours away, the house was small.
Jake parked, then looked at me.
“You ready?”
“No.”
He smiled a little. “Good. That means it matters.”
I kept rehearsing what I would say.
***
I rolled up to the door after Jake helped me into my wheelchair and knocked before I lost my courage.
My heart was beating so loudly.
Footsteps approached. The door opened, but it wasn’t Dolly.
It was a man, late 30s, maybe. He looked at me, confused.
“Can I help you?”
“I… I’m looking for Dolly. Does she live here?”
“Oh, no. She moved out a few weeks ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“Can I help you?”
The man hesitated, then added, “Wait. She left a forwarding address in case any mail showed up.”
Jake stepped forward. “That would help a lot.”
The man nodded and disappeared inside.
I sat there, barely breathing.
After all these years, I couldn’t lose the trail now.
***
The new address was about an hour away.
Jake and I didn’t talk much on the drive.
I spent most of it thinking about finding Dolly.
“That would help a lot.”
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