Chapter 6 — The Letter Rowena Never Gave Him
Rowena shook her head.
“She never tried to reverse it.”
Stellan studied her face.
“But?”
Rowena looked toward the stairs.
“There was a letter.”
Adeline stared.
“What letter?”
Rowena said nothing.
Stellan’s patience disappeared.
“Where is it?”
“Stellan—”
“Where?”
Rowena eventually walked toward the study.
Stellan followed.
Adeline stayed near Merrick.
She was not allowing Rowena anywhere near the baby again.
Inside the study, Rowena opened the bottom drawer of an old writing desk.
From beneath several folders, she removed a sealed envelope.
Across the front:
FOR STELLAN — WHEN ROWENA FINALLY TELLS HIM.
Stellan stared at the handwriting.
Evelyn’s.
He knew it immediately.
Birthday cards.
Christmas tags.
Books she’d inscribed.
Same looping letters.
His hands shook.
“How long have you had this?”
Rowena answered:
“Nine years.”
Stellan looked up sharply.
“Nine years?”
“She gave it to me when you were twenty-seven.”
“She told you to give it to me?”
“After I told you.”
“And you never did either.”
Rowena closed her eyes.
“No.”
Stellan opened the envelope.
The letter was three pages long.
He read silently at first.
Then stopped at the first paragraph.
My dear Stellan,
If Rowena has finally told you the truth, you may be angry with both of us.
You are entitled to be.
Stellan sat down.
His legs suddenly felt weak.
He continued.
Evelyn explained why she agreed to the adoption.
She had been young.
Overwhelmed.
Unsure whether she could give Stellan the stability she wanted him to have.
Rowena and Edmund loved him.
They could offer a secure home.
Evelyn believed she could remain part of his life while allowing them to raise him.
At the time, she thought love would be enough to make such an arrangement simple.
It wasn’t.
She wrote:
I do not regret making sure you were cared for.
I do regret agreeing to a silence that became harder to break every year.
Stellan’s eyes blurred.
Then he reached a line about Rowena.
Your mother Rowena loves you completely.
Do not let the truth convince you that every day she raised you was false.
But do not let her love become an excuse for the truth being withheld either.
Stellan covered his mouth.
Even Evelyn had still called Rowena his mother.
She had not wanted to replace her.
She had wanted to be acknowledged beside her.
Then he reached the final page.
Evelyn had written something Rowena apparently never expected him to read.
She described one private promise Rowena had made the night the adoption was finalized.
And Rowena had broken it for more than three decades.