CHAPTER 3
The Letter My Father Never Wanted Me to Read
The airport noise disappeared.
All I could hear was my own heartbeat.
He knew someone was coming for him.
I stared at the envelope in the old woman's hand.
My father's handwriting.
There was no mistake.
I had spent twenty-seven years imagining what happened to him.
An accident.
A kidnapping.
A secret second family.
Anything.
But never this.
Never that he knew he was about to disappear.
My hands trembled.
“What do you mean… someone was coming for him?”
The old woman looked around nervously.
“Not here.”
Meena immediately stepped forward.
“No. We're not doing this.”
Raj frowned.
“Meena, he deserves to know.”
“No, he doesn't.”
The sharpness in her voice shocked everyone.
Even Priya.
“Mom?”
Meena looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.
Fear.
Real fear.
“You need to walk away, Mr. Reyes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You tell me I have a grandmother I've never met, hand me a letter from my dead father, and now you want me to walk away?”
“He isn't dead.”
Silence.
The words came from the old woman.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“I never said your father was dead.”
I felt my legs go weak.
For twenty-seven years, I'd mourned him.
For twenty-seven years, I had imagined his funeral.
And now—
“No.”
The word escaped my lips.
“He's alive?”
Tears rolled down the old woman's cheeks.
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“He disappeared.”
I grabbed my head.
None of this made sense.
“Then why would you say that?”
“Because I never believed he died.”
Raj gently placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Nolan…”
I jerked away.
“No.”
I could barely breathe.
If there was even a one percent chance my father was alive…
everything changed.
Everything.
“Tell me the truth.”
No one spoke.
“Tell me!”
The old woman slowly handed me the envelope.
I looked at it.
The paper was old and soft from years of being handled.
On the front, in my father's handwriting, it read:
To my son.
Only if I never come back.
My vision blurred.
I looked up.
“You never opened it?”
The old woman shook her head.
“He asked me not to.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed one day you would come to me yourself.”
A strange shiver ran down my spine.
Twenty-seven years.
She had protected this letter for twenty-seven years.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Believing.
I carefully opened it.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
And a photograph.
I unfolded the picture first.
The moment I saw it, my entire body froze.
It was my father.
Standing beside another man.
A man I had never seen before.
But that wasn't what shocked me.
What shocked me was the little girl sitting on my father's shoulders.
A little girl with dark eyes and curly hair.
A little girl who looked exactly like—
“Priya…”
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked at the photograph and went pale.
“Oh my God…”
I stared at her.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine.”
I looked back at the picture.
The little girl looked two.
The timeline fit perfectly.
My father had known Priya.
Years before I was born.
The old woman smiled sadly.
“You two met once.”
I couldn't process that sentence.
“What?”
“You were babies.”
I looked from her to Priya.
“This is impossible.”
Raj took a deep breath.
“Daniel and my brother Arjun were best friends.”
He pointed to the photograph.
“That little girl is Priya.”
I looked at her.
She looked as shocked as I felt.
“You knew my father?”
“No,” she whispered. “I don't remember any of this.”
Then I unfolded the letter.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Nolan,
If you are reading this, then my greatest fear came true.
My hands trembled.
There are people who believe I took something that belongs to them. They will never stop looking for me. If I disappear, it will not be by choice.
I stopped breathing.
I kept reading.
Most importantly, there is one person you must trust.
I swallowed hard.
Her name is Priya Anand.
The world stopped.
I looked up.
Priya looked just as stunned.
“What?”
I read the line again.
One day, if fate is kind, you will find her. Protect her. Because the secret I left behind belongs to both of you.
Silence.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
I slowly looked at Priya.
She looked terrified.
“What secret?”
I whispered.
Then I turned the page over.
There was one final sentence.
Only seven words.
The key is hidden inside your mother's house.
I felt ice run through my veins.
My mother's house.
The house I grew up in.
The house I'd left only this morning.
The house my mother still lived in.
Suddenly, I remembered something.
Three days ago, before I flew to Chicago to cancel my honeymoon reservations, my mother had called me.
She sounded nervous.
She had asked a strange question.
"Nolan… has anyone ever contacted you about your father?"
At the time, I thought she was lonely.
Now…
I realized something terrifying.
My mother already knew.
Before I could speak, my phone began ringing.
I pulled it from my pocket.
The screen lit up.
MOM CALLING.
I answered immediately.
“Mom?”
All I heard was heavy breathing.
Then her frightened voice.
“Nolan… don't come home.”
My heart stopped.
“Mom? What's wrong?”
Her next words made my blood run cold.
“They found me.”
May you like
The line went dead.
TO BE CONTINUED… 🔥🔥🔥
