Chapter 7 - TRUTH AND HEALING
Healing required facing the ghosts of the past fully. Nathan arranged a trip for the entire family to visit his mother, Eleanor Vane, who lived in a quiet coastal town in Oregon.
Eleanor, a warm, wise woman who had spent years scolding Nathan over the phone for his workaholic tendencies, wept tears of joy when three identical little girls spilled out of the SUV and ran across the grass toward her porch.
"Sea-glass eyes," Eleanor whispered, kneeling down to hug Sophie, Clara, and Nora all at once. "Just like your father. Just like your grandmother."
That evening, as the tide pulled back along the shoreline, Nathan and Lydia sat on the porch while Eleanor rocked the tired girls to sleep inside.
"She kept every letter you sent her, you know," Eleanor said, stepping out onto the porch with three mugs of hot cocoa. She looked at Nathan. "Lydia wrote to me every year on the girls' birthdays. She sent photos. She made me swear not to tell you because she wanted you to fix your life first—she knew if I told you, you’d come out of duty, not out of love."
Nathan looked at Lydia in utter shock. "You stayed in touch with my mother?"
Lydia smiled faintly, looking down at her mug. "She deserved to know her granddaughters. And... deep down, I think I wanted a string connecting us, even if it was invisible to you."
"I was so blind," Nathan whispered, shaking his head. "I thought I was the victim of a sudden breakup. I never saw how much thought, how much pain you put into trying to protect everyone."
May you like
"We were both young, Nathan," Lydia said softly. "We were both trying to survive our ambitions. But we aren't those people anymore."
That night, for the first time in seven years, Nathan slept without the weight of regret pressing against his chest. In the next room, his three daughters slept peacefully, surrounded by the warmth of a family that was slowly, miraculously putting itself back together.
