AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Marc’s eyes widened as he stared at the note in my hand. “You haven’t read it?”
“Not yet. I just found it, and I left the house as fast as I could. I didn’t want to read it while I was there, in case it contains something he doesn’t want my mom to see.”
He shook his head and practically leaped off the stool, almost as if he was trying to distance himself from the note. “I think you should open it when you’re alone. That’s a private message from your father,” he said as he reached under the breakfast bar into the liquor cabinet for a bottle of bourbon.
He was shutting down again. But why would the subject of my father cause him to shut down?
I watched Marc pour himself three fingers of bourbon into a tumbler. As he downed half the glass in one shot, I turned my attention to the folded note in my hand. I traced my finger over the words: Bunny Rabbit, feeling the grooves in the text, the places where my father had pressed harder, perhaps with more urgency.
Why did it seem as if Marc didn’t want to know the contents of the note?
I slid off the stool and headed for the downstairs powder room. Marc watched me enter the room, our eyes met for a brief moment before I closed the door. I took a deep breath as I lowered the toilet lid and took a seat. Then, I unfolded the note.
My favorite color of the sky is amber. The sky is only amber during sunrise. It’s a very specific color for a very specific event. Amber is the color God chose to say, “Here you go. You’ve been given another day, another chance. Don’t waste it.” That was why I asked you to get married at sunrise. Marc is your sunrise, and you are his. My sunrises may be over, but yours have just begun. Remember the amber sky, sweetheart. It’s a promise. The promise of tomorrow. That’s my promise to you. I love you, Bunny. Miss you already.
-Dad
I tore a piece of toilet paper off the roll to wipe the tears from my cheeks as I digested my father’s words. He couldn’t have written this note in his final months. He wasn’t coherent enough. But if he wrote it a long time ago, who had placed it in the basket in his study?
I cleaned myself up and folded the note before exiting the bathroom. Marc was still in the kitchen, in the middle of pouring himself another drink. Marc never had more than one drink per night. Either the conversation about his parentage really rattled him, or the topic of my father made him feel he needed to numb himself. Numb himself to what?
I thought back to the couple of times I’d seemingly caught Marc and my mother speaking in hushed tones. They’d claimed to be discussing my father’s will. But I’d always felt like maybe they were hiding something.
“Did you know about this note?” I asked, placing the folded paper on the island.
He glanced at it very quickly, but he didn’t reply.
“Marc, I asked you a question. Did you know my father left this note for me?”
My heart raced as I remembered the day Marc found out I was pregnant. Was it him or I who had suggested he could paint the word tomorrow on the wall, as a promise?
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yes… I knew about the note.”
“Did you put it there for me to find it?” I asked, my body trembling as adrenaline surged through me.
He shook his head. “Your dad put it there.”
I gripped the edge of the breakfast bar for support. “I don’t… I don’t get it. My father wasn’t well enough to write this note and come up with such an elaborate hiding place. Did… Did someone help him? Did you help him?”
He pushed the glass of bourbon away and looked up at me with an apology that was as tangible as the marble countertop I was holding onto. “I’m sorry, Cass. He made me promise not to tell you. He actually hired me as his lawyer, so I would be legally bound to keep it from you.”
I took a step back as he began moving toward me. “I don’t understand. Are you… Are you telling me my father wasn’t sick?”
“No,” Marc replied fiercely. “Your dad was sick. But… He wanted to leave on his own terms. He didn’t want the disease to take everything he loved from him.”
“On his own terms,” I repeated Marc’s words softly to myself as the gravity of their meaning delivered a bolt of lightning straight into my heart.
“He wanted you all to be taken care of when he was gone…and the royalties were dwindling… He did what he thought he had to do to make sure his family was taken care of.”
My mind flashed to the check I received from my father’s life insurance carrier in the weeks after his death. It was more than two million dollars, and that was just my portion.
“Are you saying my father pretended to be sicker than he was so no one would question whether his car accident was…was suicide?” The last word came out of my mouth at a whisper, like a dirty secret.
“Your father didn’t believe—and neither did I—that in order for his family to receive a life insurance payout, on a policy he’d paid into for decades, that he would have to suffer a long, painful illness and death. And that you all would have to watch helplessly. He…” Marc paused, and his eyes began to water as he clenched his jaw. He took a moment to collect himself, then he cleared his throat and continued. “He said that life had no meaning without memories. That your memories keep you company. A man without memories is the loneliest man in the world… He didn’t want to die alone.”
“He wasn’t alone!” I shouted. “You should have told me. He’s my father, not yours. I deserved to know.” I stepped back again as he reached for me. “Don’t touch me.”
“Cass, you have to believe me. I wanted to tell you every day, but he was my client. And he was the one dying. He needed my help.”
I pushed past him and grabbed my purse off the counter. “I need to talk to my mom.”
“Don’t go, Cass. You shouldn’t be driving when you’re this upset,” he said, reaching for my hand.
I tried to pull my hand back, but his grip tightened. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you downed a half bottle of bourbon,” I replied, yanking my hand out of his and heading for the door leading to the garage.
He moved quickly to stand in f
ront of the door. “I’m not letting you leave like this. Just sit with me for a while until you’ve calmed down.”
“Get out of my way.”
He shook his head. “I’m not moving.”
“Fine,” I said, reaching into my purse and pulling out my phone. “I’ll call an Uber.”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “You need to stay here and talk to me, Cass.”
“Maybe I should just call the police and tell them you’re holding me hostage in my own house.”
He sighed. “Just stay a little while. Let me answer your questions. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
I looked him in the eye. “I want to know how you could pretend to love me when you’ve been lying to me for so long.” I held up my hand with my palm facing downward. “Steady as a rock. I can drive. Now please move out of my way.”
He hung his head as he stepped aside. “I didn’t want to lose you,” he said, looking utterly defeated.
“If you thought I’d leave you because of your father’s sins, then you never really knew me.” I opened the door. “You’ve been drinking. Don’t even think of following me.”
I tried to shut the door behind me, but Marc stepped into the doorway to watch me leave. As I shifted my SUV into reverse, he mouthed, “I love you.”
Once I was on the streets of Chestnut Hill, I realized I didn’t actually want to see my mother. Those hushed discussions she’d been having with Marc meant she was probably well aware of my father’s intentions. The three of them had been lying to Lina, Carter, and me all along.
Coming to a stop at a red light, I let out a primal roar as I pounded the steering wheel.
How could I have been so blind?
Why didn’t my father trust me enough to tell me the truth?
As the car behind me honked its horn, I realized I knew the answer to that question.
My father knew I would ask him to stay, and he wouldn’t be able to refuse me.
The car that had honked its horn pulled around my SUV and disappeared somewhere ahead of me. As I pulled into the intersection, I realized I hadn’t checked to see if the traffic light was still green. And by the time I looked up and saw the red light, it was too late.
