Two parents.
Two completely different worlds.
I lowered my eyes again.
I tried to leave with you once. We were stopped not through force, but through a lie.
Someone told me your father had changed his mind.
That person was someone I trusted deeply.
I returned because I believed him.
That was my mistake.
I looked at Arthur.
“Was it you?”
Maria turned toward him sharply.
Arthur didn’t respond.
His silence told me everything I needed.
I stood.
“You convinced her to return.”
His eyes rose toward mine.
“Yes.”
Maria whispered, “Why?”
Arthur suddenly looked far older than sixty-three.
“Because I believed your father.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“You just told us she trusted you.”
“She did.”
“And you brought her back to him.”
“I told her Thomas wanted to talk.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“They argued.”
“About me?”
“About everything.”
Arthur’s composure finally cracked.
For the first time, I saw what nearly three decades of guilt looked like on a man’s face.
“He promised her she could leave the following morning,” Arthur said. “He promised nobody would interfere. I believed him.”
“But she never left.”
“No.”
“Because she became sick.”
Arthur looked directly at me.
“She was already sick, Daniel.”
The room became silent.
I frowned.
“What?”
“Your mother had been unwell for months.”
“Then why was she planning to run?”
“Because the doctors told her the treatment might not succeed.”
Something shifted inside me.
I had always believed my mother died because life had simply taken her away from me.
Now, suddenly, I could see her making plans.
Trying to gain time.
Trying to protect me before she ran out of her own.
“She knew?” I asked.
“She understood how serious it might become.”
Maria placed her hand over mine.
I didn’t move away.
Arthur continued.
“That was why she became desperate to remove you from the organization. She feared that once she was gone, your father would shape you into his successor.”
A humorless smile crossed my face.
“He did.”
“Yes.”
I looked back down at the letter.
There was more.
If I fail, there may come a day when you believe your father was the only person who ever truly loved you.
He loves you.
But love without freedom can become a cage.
Please remember that.
I swallowed hard.
Then I saw a name.
Gabriel Torres has risked more for us than he ever should have. If I cannot leave, I have asked him to watch over you from a distance.
