Chapter 7 — The Envelope Mara Left for Roderick
Roderick looked toward Eudora.
“What did she leave?”
Eudora pointed toward the hidden room.
“Letter.”
Celestine frowned.
“What letter?”
Eudora looked surprised.
“You don’t know?”
Celestine shook her head.
Eudora led Roderick back through the wardrobe.
Inside the archive room, she walked toward a small wooden toy chest.
Then reached behind it.
A white envelope was taped to the wall.
Across the front:
RODERICK — IF YOU EVER FIND THIS ROOM.
Roderick stared.
Mara had left it without telling Celestine.
He opened it.
Roderick,
If you’re reading this, then Celestine either told you or the secret found its own way out.
Roderick almost laughed at the accuracy.
He continued.
I asked her not to protect me from your reaction.
I told her the truth belongs to you even if you decide afterward that you never want to see me.
Roderick slowly looked toward Celestine.
Her face fell.
Mara had told her directly.
Celestine had ignored that too.
Roderick continued reading.
I don’t know what you remember about me.
Perhaps nothing except being told I died.
I remember nothing of you from childhood because I was too young.
But when I learned I had an older brother, I felt as if someone had told me an entire room had always existed in my own house and everyone else knew except me.
Roderick looked around the hidden room.
The metaphor was almost painfully literal now.
I do not want to become another person who decides what you can handle.
If you want contact, I am here.
If you don’t, I will respect that.
Mara.
Roderick folded the letter.
Eudora watched him carefully.
“Are you mad?”
“At you?”
She nodded.
“Never.”
“At Mommy?”
Roderick paused.
He would not lie.
“I’m upset with Mommy about how she handled this.”
Eudora’s eyes filled.
“Are you going away?”
Roderick immediately understood.
The secret had made Eudora believe telling the truth might break the family.
He pulled her into his arms.
“No.”
“Mommy and I are going to talk.”
“Adults can be upset with each other and still take care of you.”
“You do not have to keep secrets to keep us together.”
Eudora cried against him.
That sentence was the first repair.
But Roderick still had to decide what to do about Mara.
And when he finally called the number in her original letter, he learned she had almost left the country that morning because she believed Celestine had decided never to tell him.