The Reading of the Will
What He Never Said

Only If You Found Them

August 25, 2026 · Part 8 of 10 · 2 min

My hands were shaking when I broke the seal. Griffin leaned in so close I could feel him holding his breath.

*My darlings,*

*If you're reading this, you did the hard thing, which is exactly what I hoped for and dreaded in equal measure. I'm sorry for the years of not telling you. I told myself it was to protect you from being afraid of a man who was never going to be part of your lives again. The truth is simpler and less flattering — I was ashamed. Ashamed I married someone who could frighten his own children, ashamed it took me as long as it did to file that order, ashamed of how much of your safety I couldn't buy or arrange or fix myself.*

*Warren could. He never once made it about himself. He never once asked me to tell you what he'd done, and when I offered, more than once, he told me the same thing every time: "They don't owe me anything for doing what a person is supposed to do."*

*Here is the part you need most. The house, the accounts, the shop — all of it is still legally tangled with paperwork from before I filed against your father, joint titles I never fully untangled because doing so would have required contact I couldn't survive. If any of it had passed directly to you, there is a real chance it could have been contested, clawed at, made into another excuse for him to reach back into your lives. Leaving it to Warren was never about cutting you out. It was the only way I knew to keep it — and you — out of his reach for good.*

*One more thing. There is a document attached to the will that Delphine hasn't shown you yet. Ask her for page fourteen.*

*I love you both more than any of these boxes could ever say. Which is exactly why I made sure they said it anyway.*

*— Mom*

Griffin read it twice over my shoulder before either of us spoke.

"Page fourteen," he finally said, voice hoarse. "There's more."

Continue the story Part 9: Page Fourteen →

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