Read Chapter 26: — THE LETTERS

Recovery forced Graham to take a week away from site.

Maggie used the opportunity to send Daniel a box of old correspondence she had kept for decades.

“Why now?” he asked.

“Because I’m tired of secrets.”

The letters showed a marriage far more complicated than the story either parent had told.

Graham was often absent, yes. But he wrote constantly at first. He described weather, bridges, terrible accommodation, men he admired and places he wanted to show Maggie one day.

Maggie’s replies were affectionate, then frustrated, then angry.

After Daniel’s birth the letters became sharper.

Come home.

I can’t yet.

You always say that.

This project matters.

So does your son.

Then Maya appeared in the correspondence.

Graham’s colleague and close friend, Peter Bennett, and Peter’s wife had died in an industrial accident. Their toddler had no immediate family able to take her. Graham brought her home believing he was doing the only decent thing.

He did not explain fast enough.

Maggie, exhausted and already abandoned in every practical sense, believed the child proved a betrayal.

The marriage collapsed in a fog of grief, pride and missed timing.

Daniel finished the last letter at dawn.

There was no clean side to choose.

That was, he realised, the adult version of family history.