A month ago, she thought the worst thing she would have to face was telling her parents about not wanting to take over the bakery. That now felt trivial. She had wanted to do a bit of soul-searching, but it wasn’t her own soul she had been searching for—it was Alistair’s. It had been his all along. She felt like her life had been in a holding pattern because it had been. It was holding out for him. Suddenly she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life.
She walked to the table, picked up her cell phone, and called her parents. To keep moving forward to where she wanted to be, she had to have the hard conversations. In order to do that, she needed to tell her parents face-to-face about the bakery and Colin. Within a few minutes, they were on her doorstep, eager to seetheir only daughter and to know how her trip had gone.
“How was the trip, pumpkin?” her dad asked as he kicked off his boots and pulled her into a big hug.
“It was good.”
“I see you found dinner?” her mother said, looking at the Tupperware container sitting on the coffee table.
“I have something I need to talk about,” she said, coming right out with it and catching her parents off guard with her serious tone.
“Oh, God, did something bad happen to you over there?” her mother asked, scanning her up and down for visible marks.
“Of course not,” she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. Her parents followed suit, eagerly waiting for what she was about to tell them.
“What would you guys say if I told you I didn’t want to take over the bakery?” she asked and then held her breath.
The room fell silent, and her parents shared a look. To Nora’s surprise, her mother was the first to speak. “I would say you know best where your own dreams lie.”
Nora sat completely stunned. She had prepared herself for an all-out fight to the death with her mother over not carrying on the family business.
“Really? I thought you would be upset,” Nora said.
“Of course not. Yes, we love the bakery and want to see it continue on, but we love you more and want what is best for you,” her father said.
“I know over the years I put pressure on you to run the family business, but I only did it out of love. You seemed so lost, and I thought if you had the bakery to take over, you would have some sense of purpose. If I had known it wasn’t what you wanted, I would have never pushed it on you,” her mother said.
“But what will you do if I don’t take it over?” Nora asked. The question had been plaguing her since she had decided to tell them.
“We have another couple of years left in us to run the place. Maybe we can find someone who will buy it and keep it as a bakery,” her father said.
“Now, the big question is, what do you plan to do?” her mother asked.
Nora fell silent for a long while, and her mother reached over and placed her hand on Nora’s. The small gesture surprised her and gave her the strength to carry on.
“I want to be a writer. The University of Edinburgh has a good program that I might want to attend,” she told them, holding her breath for their response.
Her father smiled. “See, Gram always knew what was best. She knew going to Scotland was just want you needed, even all those years ago.”
Nora smiled at him and then looked over at her bag resting on the other end of the table. She got up and pulled her bag over to where she was sitting. Unzipping it, she pulled out the stack of letters and the photo album.
“There’s something else I wanted to tell you,” she said, handing her father the stack of letters. “Gram kept a secret that I think you should know about. I discovered it when I was in Scotland.”
Her father looked down at the stack of letters and opened one. His eyes darted back and forth as he read. When he finished, he set it down and looked up at Nora.
“I don’t understand. Who are these people? It sounds like this guy Colin was in some kind of relationship with Gram,” he questioned.
“He was. They were madly in love with each other until theday he died, eight months before you were born,” Nora said, waiting for the words to sink in. Nervousness rose within her.
“Are you trying to tell me this Colin guy is my father? There is no way. Mom met my dad when he was stationed at the military hospital.”
“Yes, that is true, but she was already pregnant with Colin’s child, you. Grandad liked her and knew she was pregnant, so he offered to marry her only if she agreed never to tell anyone you weren’t his son. Not even you,” Nora explained as gently as possible. She could see the hurt and confusion in his eyes as he glanced back at the letters.
“Are you sure about this, Nora?” her mother questioned, placing her hand on her husband’s shoulder.
“I’m sure. It’s all there. You’ll have to look at the photos, read the dates on the back, and then read the letters. I made you a timeline and stuck it in the album along with a letter I found hidden in the back,” she told him, trying to gauge his reaction. “I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t know if I should even tell you, but I thought you had the right to know. Nothing good comes of secrets being hidden in the past.”
He was quiet for a long time as he took in what Nora had just revealed. His eyes glazed over, and for a moment she thought he might cry. He finally looked up from the stack of old yellowed letters and said, “I’m glad you told me. You know, I think she tried to tell me in her own way throughout the years. Always hinting at things my father liked or was good at, things that didn’t fit him at all. Now it makes so much sense. She had been talking about my birth father, not Grandad.”
