I was less than ten feet away from them.
Yet I had never felt so completely alone.
There was one thing my father didn’t know, however.
A secret my mother had entrusted to me before she died.
My mother had passed away when I was young, but I still remembered the night she placed a small silver key around my neck.
Her hands had trembled as she fastened the chain.
“When you turn eighteen, Emily, you must contact your grandmother,” she whispered. “Not before. And whatever your father tells you, don’t believe that she’s forgotten you.”Find Holiday Gifts
I had barely known my grandmother. My father rarely mentioned her, and whenever I asked questions, his expression changed in a way that made me afraid to ask again.
Once, when I was twelve, I found an old photograph of a beautiful woman standing beside my mother. My father snatched it from my hands and tore it in half.
