“What did you destroy?”
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He lifted the lid.
Inside were old photographs, envelopes, and a small red box.
On top lay a photograph of a woman.
A beautiful young woman wearing white.
I recognized her immediately.
It was my mother.
But the man standing beside her wasn’t my father.
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It was my uncle.
And Richard had his arms wrapped around her.
I froze.
“What is this?”
My uncle sat on the edge of the bed.
“Long before you were born, your mother and I had a secret.”
I felt my hands turn cold.
“You and Mom…”
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He lowered his head.
“Please, let me explain everything.”
I picked up a second photograph.
Once again, my mother was standing beside my uncle.
On the back, someone had written:
“The most important day of our lives. 1998.”
I couldn’t hold back my tears.
“Were you having an affair?”
Richard suddenly raised his head.
“No, Emily. Never!”
“Then why are you two so close in these pictures? And why can’t Dad know?”
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He reached toward the red box.
But just then, I heard a car approaching outside.
My uncle’s face turned pale.
“Oh, God. They’re already back.”
I rushed to the window.
My father’s car had stopped in front of the cabin.
Richard quickly tried to close the suitcase.
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I grabbed his hand.
“No! You’re telling me everything right now!”
He sat down in a chair and whispered,
“Your father has spent thirty years believing I betrayed him. But the truth is, I was only trying to carry out his wishes.”
“What wishes?”
He opened the red box.
Inside was a gold ring.
And underneath it lay an old hospital document.
Suddenly, I realized that in the photographs, my mother wasn’t wearing a wedding dress.
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She was wearing a white hospital gown.
“Back then, your father was involved in a terrible car accident,” Richard began. “For a long time, the doctors couldn’t say whether he would ever walk again.”
I knew about the accident, but my father had never told me the details.
“Your mother was still his fiancée. They were planning to get married. But after the accident, Daniel decided to cancel the wedding.”
“Why?”
“He believed he would become a burden to your mother. He asked me to return her engagement ring and tell her he no longer wanted to marry her.”
