Chapter 19 - THE LYDIA PROJECT
Liam created the Lydia Moore Foundation.
Its mission was simple:
Provide free legal assistance to parents and children affected by falsified records, coercive adoptions and abuse of institutional power.
Robert offered to run it.
Liam refused.
“You have a company.”
Robert smiled.
“You’re getting comfortable telling me no.”
“I had eighteen years of practice without you.”
The joke surprised them both.
Robert laughed.
Liam did too.
Miriam became the foundation’s first legal director.
Grace volunteered.
Nora insisted Lydia would have hated the expensive office Robert suggested.
“She liked old buildings.”
So Liam purchased the abandoned bookstore where Lydia once worked.
They renovated it.
Olivia painted shelves.
Sarah organized volunteers.
Robert kept making mistakes with the power tools.
Liam kept fixing them.
One afternoon Robert cut his hand slightly while installing a cabinet.
Liam grabbed the first-aid kit.
“Sit down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Liam stopped.
Robert stopped too.
Neither mentioned that “sir” sounded strangely like the opposite of the word they were both slowly approaching.
That evening Liam received a university acceptance letter.
He had applied to study law.
Robert read it twice.
“You never told me.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d get in.”
Robert handed the letter back.
“I’m proud of you.”
Liam looked away.
Those four words hurt in a way anger never had.
Because they were words he had wanted since childhood without knowing whose voice he wanted to hear them from.
Finally he whispered:
“Thanks, Dad.”
Robert froze.
May you like
Liam walked away before the moment could become too large.
But Robert stood alone in the bookstore smiling.
