Chapter 2: The Name They Were Never Allowed to Say
Arthur's hands weren't steady when he finished reading.
He read it twice.
Then a third time.
The letter was short — only one page — but every line landed like a separate blow.
Maya was watching him.
"She said you'd know what to do."
He folded the letter carefully and looked at Ethan.
"How long have you been carrying this?"
"Since the night she went to the hospital." Ethan's voice didn't waver, but his jaw did.
"She made me promise not to give it to anyone else.
Only you."
Arthur stood slowly.
He crossed to the window, not to look at anything — just to put some distance between himself and the feeling rising in his chest.
The key.
The number stamped on it.
He knew what it opened.
He had been inside that building once, years ago, standing beside the woman who had just written him this letter — the woman Victoria had called a d**d friend like it was nothing.
What he hadn't known — what the letter told him — was that Victoria's father had been there too.
And that he hadn't been a stranger.
Arthur turned back to the children.
"Did your mother ever mention a man named Hargrove?"
Maya went still.
Ethan looked at his sister.
May you like
Then back at Arthur.
"That's the name she told us never to say out loud."
