Xander looked down at the letter one last time.
Alexander,
Well done.
Tobias Hawthorne
Perhaps the old man’s promise had been a lie. Perhaps, to Tobias Hawthorne, Xander had only been an afterthought. But he had to try. He turned to the tub beside him. He filled it with water.
“Xander?” Rebecca said again, and her voice nearly undid him.
“Here goes nothing.” Xander laid his letter gingerly on the surface of the water, then pressed down.
At first, he thought he’d made a horrible mistake. He thought nothing was happening. Then, slowly, writing appeared, on either side of his grandfather’s signature.Tobias Hawthorne, he’d signed it,no middle name, and now the reason for that omission was clear.
The invisible ink darkened on the page. To the right of the signature, there were only two letters, equating to one Roman numeral:II.And to the left, there was a single word:Find.
Find Tobias Hawthorne II.
