"Thomas could have told me."
"He thought you would confront them."
"I would have."
"Exactly."
Daniel reached across the table.
"He wanted you to stay out of it."
"And you?"
"I was going to help him."
"What happened?"
Daniel looked away.
"I made a mistake."
The Night Everything Changed
Daniel told me that fifty years ago, the night before we were supposed to meet at the café, he had gone to Thomas's apartment.
They were supposed to exchange copies of the documents.
Instead, someone was waiting.
Daniel heard voices inside.
He looked through the window.
Richard was there.
And another man.
They were arguing with Thomas.
Daniel panicked.
He ran.
He drove away.
But someone followed him.
His car was forced off the road.
He survived.
Barely.
But before the police arrived, he made a decision.
He disappeared.
"Why?"
"Because I realized they knew about you."
Daniel said he had spent years believing that if he stayed away, I would be safe.
"But the accident?"
"I invented it."
"Why?"
"Because if anyone ever found me, I needed a story that would explain why I had disappeared."
I couldn't speak.
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I know."
"You let me wait fifty years."
"I know."
"You let me sit in that café every August 15."
His eyes filled with tears.
"I know."
I stood up.
For the first time since seeing him again, I felt anger instead of joy.
"You didn't protect me."
I whispered.
"You stole fifty years from me."
The Letter
Daniel didn't defend himself.
Instead, he handed me an envelope.
My name was written on it.
Not my married name.
My maiden name.
The handwriting was my brother's.
I recognized it immediately.
I couldn't open it.
My hands were shaking too badly.
Daniel said:
"Thomas wrote that letter the week before he died."
I stared at him.
"Why didn't I ever see it?"
"Because he told me to give it to you only if I returned."
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
I read the first line.
Dear Anna,
I hadn't seen my name written in my brother's handwriting for years.
I started crying before I reached the second paragraph.
Thomas wrote that he was sorry.
He said he had spent years believing he could protect me by keeping secrets.
He said my father had made mistakes.
But he also said our father had tried to correct them.
Then came a sentence that changed everything.
Daniel didn't disappear because he was afraid of Richard. He disappeared because I asked him to.
I looked at Daniel.
"What?"