Chapter 40 - Miriam's GraveEmma and Adrian visited Miriam's grave together.
Emma placed flowers down.
“She lied to me.”
Adrian nodded.
“She also saved you.”
“I know.”
Those two truths had taken Emma months to hold at the same time.
Miriam should have told her sooner.
Miriam had also spent decades believing powerful men might kill Emma if the truth emerged.
Fear had shaped her decisions.
Emma could resent the secrecy and love the woman simultaneously.
Adrian placed a small ambulance pin beside the stone.
“I never got to thank her.”
Emma smiled.
“She would have hated that.”
“Why?”
“She hated being thanked.”
“Then I probably would have liked her.”
“You would have.”
Emma looked toward him.
“She didn't hate you.”
Adrian's eyes softened.
“She didn't know me.”
“She knew my mother still loved you.”
A long silence.
Then Emma added:
“She kept your photograph.”
Adrian looked away toward the trees.
Miriam had not only protected Emma.
May you like
She had protected the possibility that one day father and daughter might find each other.
The ring had completed that promise.
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