Daniel squeezed her hand.

"You'll know."

The Final Revelation

Three days later, Daniel asked Eleanor to sit beside him.

His children were in the room.

Claire.

Her brother, David.

And Eleanor.

Daniel looked at all of them.

"I owe everyone the truth."

Eleanor's heart began racing.

Daniel reached beneath his pillow.

He pulled out an old envelope.

He handed it to Eleanor.

She opened it.

Inside was a letter.

Her name was written on the front.

The handwriting was young.

Very young.

Eleanor looked at Daniel.

"What is this?"

"I wrote it fifty-four years ago."

She unfolded the paper.

The first line read:

Eleanor, if you ever wonder why I disappeared, please know that leaving you was never what I wanted.

Her hands began shaking.

Daniel continued.

"When my family moved, I intended to come back."

He explained that his father had become seriously ill.

The family fell into financial difficulty.

Daniel had been pressured to leave school and work.

Then his father died.

Daniel had become responsible for his younger siblings.

He had written Eleanor repeatedly.

But his letters were returned.

Eventually, he believed she had moved on.

So he stopped trying.

But that wasn't the biggest revelation.

The Secret He Had Carried for Decades

Daniel looked at Eleanor.

"There's something else."

He told her that years later, after both of them had married other people, he had found Eleanor's name in a newspaper.

He had discovered that she had lost a pregnancy.

He had wanted to contact her.

But he didn't.

"Why?"

"Because I was married."

Eleanor closed her eyes.

"Then why did you look me up?"