He placed four mugs on the kitchen table.
“I don’t know how much tea goes in those little metal things,” he admitted.
Madison peered inside hers.
“Apparently half the box.”
For the first time all evening, we laughed like a family instead of people cautiously negotiating one another.
The letter remained in my pocket.
Dad noticed.
“Do you want privacy?”
I thought about it.
“No.”
I sat at the table.
Carefully, I opened the envelope.
There were three pages.
Mom’s handwriting filled both sides.
I began silently.
Then Madison said, “Read it out loud?”
I looked around the table.
Ethan nodded.
Dad did not.
He simply waited.
So I read.
“My dearest Claire,
If you are reading this, then Mrs. Alvarez has decided the moment is right, which means I am trusting two stubborn women at once.
This is risky.”
Madison laughed through her nose.
Dad smiled into his tea.
