Margaret nodded.
“He wrote this after his wife confronted him. She had discovered that he and your father had been communicating.”
“Communicating?”
“They exchanged several letters that summer. Your father was worried you would leave town with Douglas. Douglas’s father was worried Douglas would abandon his family. They agreed that separating you was the safest choice.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“Why was this never given to my father?”
“It was intended to be. Your grandmother asked me to deliver it. But before I could, Douglas’s father suffered a second stroke. After that, he could no longer speak clearly.”
“And you kept it?”
“I kept it because your grandmother asked me to hold it until Douglas was ready to know the truth.”
“Was he ever ready?”
Margaret’s expression saddened.
“She gave him the statement in 1998, after your father’s death. By then, Elaine was recovering from cancer, and Douglas believed reopening the past would be selfish.”
