“I guess you could say I’m slowly coming to terms with my new reality. It’s all been quite shocking to unearth. But I found something important after our call. Lil’s safe deposit key, in a random coffee can.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“It was like finding a teardrop in the ocean. I didn’t think I’d ever find it until you mentioned your coffee dates. See, she was collecting these coffee cans for as long as I could remember, but I didn’t know why. She didn’t drink coffee, you know,” she said with an unfocused gaze.
“I’m glad I could help you solve the puzzle.”
“You unlocked everything, literally.” Dahlia took a breath, feeling a smile curl her lips. “Lil kept a journal. It was filled with messages to you. There were pages from when you were together to when she was pregnant with my mother, Rose. Your daughter. Lil gave her the middle name Ingrid, just like you named your other daughter.”
She could hear his small gasp.
“There’s so much you need to read for yourself. There was a letter in the box, along with my mother’s birth certificate, naming you as the father.”
“Dahlia, I don’t need a paper to confirm what I know in my heart.”
“Well, it’s here if you need it. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m a swindler.”
“Never, darling.”
“Gene, I need to tell you something before I go any further. I don’t want to give you false hope.”
“Go on.”
“My mother, Rose, your daughter, died twenty-five years ago.”
There was a long pause. “I suspected as much when you didn’t mention her. And the fact that you reached out instead of her.”
Dahlia wanted to tell him everything: how smart, kind, and funny she was and how at peace she was before she died, but instead, she told him about his great-granddaughter. She wasn’t sure how Daisy would react if they ever met, but he deserved to know.
“Would you like me to read the letter to you?”
“Very much,” he said softly.
Dahlia reached for the letter tucked under Harry’s foot and read Lil’s proof of love.
Dear Dahlia,
Enclosed are my journals. They hold the key to a secret that has been buried for far too long. I didn’t have the guts to share it while I was alive, and I am deeply sorry for that.
I met an amazing man in 1955. He was what Daisy would call my twin flame. It was the summer my father took a job at CBS Studios in California. I was just sixteen but wise beyond my years. He was nineteen, and oh, was he a looker. He swept me off my feet, and we fell madly in love within weeks. It was the kind of love that moved mountains and parted the seas. It was the stuff movies were made of and books written about. At the time, he was just an errand boy, but I knew he would make it big in film someday. He had so much drive and determination.
Dahlia read on about Lil’s monstrous father, what he’d threatened to do to Gene if she didn’t obey his wishes, and how there was no choice but to have her sister raise Rose. There was no doubt in her mind that he was the one who hid those letters.
Reading Lil’s words to Gene stirred an emotional tsunami inside her. Her shaky voice barely made it to the end. “Are you still there?” Dahlia asked, feeling tears slip from her eyes at a quiet pace.
“Yes. Please continue,” he mumbled.
This must be shocking, but I need you to know where you came from. Your biological grandfather’s name is Gene Obermann, but he changed his name to Charles Halston when he hit it big in the movies. I am hoping he is still alive. Please get in touch with him, tell him what happened, and that I died loving him. It would be my last wish fulfilled.
There was silence on the other end. She was praying his heart didn’t give out.
“Gene, she died loving you. Every day, it was you, her, and my mother Rose. You can read about it in her journals too, if you’d like.” She peeled herself from the floor, returning the blood flow to her legs.
His voice faded as he asked, “I wonder why she didn’t reach out to me ever?”
“Maybe she was scared that you moved on. I’m sure she saw your big life back then. Knowing Lil, she probably didn’t think she’d fit into it. You know, square peg, round hole.” She knew that feeling all too well. But it was more than that. As a mother herself, she knew Lil’s reason was Rose. Just like she’d stayed in a hollow place for too long for Daisy but kept that part to herself. “And don’t forget she never got your letters, so she didn’t know what you felt after she left that summer.”
“I never stopped loving her. We would have always fit together no matter the time or space.”
