“I honestly don’t have a clue. My dad is a pretty chill guy, but this is life-changing news. I just hope it’s not too much for him athis age,” Nora said.
“That’s not going to be an easy conversation, but at least you have the photos and letters to help show him that it was a true love story.”
Alistair picked up the album and began flipping through the pages until he got to the end. He quickly flipped it back to the front and looked at the inside cover, then turned back to the last page as if he were inspecting it.
“What is it?” Nora asked.
“Does this look like someone changed the back of the cover?” Alistair said, turning it from front to back again, scrutinizing it closely.
Nora saw that he was right. Someone had glued a piece of paper over the back cover. She wedged her finger under the edge and lifted the corner. Slowly peeling back the aged layer, she saw the edge of a photograph along with a white-lined sheet.
Nora stopped and looked at Alistair. “Holy shit,” she said as she slowly removed the photograph.
There, in black and white, was a picture of her grandmother, smiling at the camera. Colin was behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist as he kissed her cheek. Nora’s heart swelled at the sight of it. She turned it over; no date was written on the back, just the wordsmy lovescrolled in her grandmother’s neat handwriting.
Nora carefully removed the paper next and unfolded it slowly. It was a letter, hidden away for years, yellowed and fading. The writing was blurred in spots, as if tears had fallen on it. Nora held her breath for a moment.
Seeing her hesitate, Alistair asked, “Do you want me to read it to you?”
She shook her head and focused on the words penned on the page.
To my sweet child,
I write this to you in hopes that someday you will discover it and learn the truth of your parentage. I found out I was pregnant with you only a few short weeks after your father died. Though bittersweet, it pains me that you will never know his love. His name was Colin MacDonald, and he was the kindest and most loving man I had ever met. We shared a bond that was unbreakable, even after his death. You are the proof of that abiding love.
You are due to come into the world any day now, and I cannot wait to meet you, to see if you have your father’s eyes and his smile. Because he and I were not married, you, my sweet child, even though conceived in pure love, are born out of wedlock. My father, being a religious man, would have cast me away if I came home unwed with a child. So, I have accepted a proposal from a surgeon I have been working under. He has offered to marry me and give us a stable life, but only on the condition that I never tell anyone, not even you, of your parentage.
I feel as though I have no other choice but to agree. I am writing you this letter so that someday you might discover it, hidden here in my memories, and know who your true father really was—a courageous man.
I do not know what the future holds for us, but I promise you that I will love you with every ounce of my being, and I will do all that I can to continue on and carry Colin with us, even if only in my heart.
With all the love I have to give,
Your mother,
Edith
Nora finished reading and handed the letter to Alistair, contemplating her grandmother’s words, though they had been meant for her father, not for her. Why hadn’t she told him after Donald’s passing? Why maintain her silence even then? Perhaps she felt that since he had honored his promise to give her and Colin’s son a good life, she needed to uphold her end of the bargain as well.
Alistair looked up after reading the letter and handed it back to her.
“That’s some heavy shit. You okay?” he asked, pulling her into a hug.
“It’s hard to read. She seemed so broken.”
“At least now you have proof to hand your dad instead of this puzzle of photos and letters for him to piece together.”
Nora folded the letter and tucked it back into the photo album behind the picture of them together. Then she closed it and set it on the coffee table next to her notebook.
Lochland jumped up onto her lap and began licking the tears from her cheeks. “Aww, thanks, boy,” she said, giving the dog a big hug.
He jumped back down and began running circles around the sofa.
“I think he needs to go out,” Alistair said, getting up and walking over to the kitchen. Nora followed, still limping slightly on her injured leg.
“Why don’t I take him out?” Nora suggested.
Alistair looked down at her leg. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. The path is slippery, and I don’t want you hurting your ankle again. We will be right back,” he told her as he slung on his jacket and walked out the door with Lochland at his heels. The room fell into a heavy silence in their absence, broken only by the crackle of the fire. Nora’s gaze fixed on the coffee table,where the photo album and Colin’s codebook lay side by side—silent witnesses to a past she thought she had nearly unraveled. Each item, a fragment of her grandparents’ legacy, held the last whispers of secrets they both held onto. Despite her progress, she knew there was more concealed within the codebook about the curse. Determined to uncover the remaining secrets, she felt a growing urgency to decipher the hidden truths before she had to leave Scotland and head back to America.
