Hey Steemians!

Welcome to Week 4 of Season 24 of the Steemit Challenge! This week’s prompt opens the door to buried secrets, forgotten ties, and an inheritance tied to truth. Here’s my entry:

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Julie had not seen her father for more than six years. Their final talk ended in silence and every birthday was passed in silence. Therefore, when she got a formal one about his death and a will reading, she went out because she felt the need to, and not out of anything good.

She expected perhaps a shelf full of dusty books, his rusty violin, or that cracked armchair that he refused to throw away. However, when the lawyer transferred a plain folder across the table with a trembling hand, she also opened it with trembling hands.

AI created

Inside there was a sentence, which had been circled in red ink.

”The estate is to be shared equally by the three children of mine”.

Julie blinked, probably a clerical mistake. She turned to her older brother Mark who had equally clueless look on his face.

“Three children?” she said, out loud to the room as if it were going to respond.

Mark shrugged his shoulders, not taking his eyes off of the folder. The lawyer Mr. Alden just pushed his glasses up and gave her another sheet.

It was a name: Jeremy Cates.
A P.O. Box in a small coastal town, three hours south of them.
And one condition, in bold, typed.

All the three heirs have to agree. Otherwise, the estate remains sealed.

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AI creation

During the next week, Julie is unable to sleep. Their father had always been secretive, never to speak on his years in his youth or affairs prior to their mother. There was something about the name Jeremy that provoked her. Not recognition- but a hollow space, the part of a puzzle piece she’s been missing her whole life.

She decided to find him.

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Julie arrived at the seaside town of Whitley in the gloomy afternoon. It was small, quiet- more boats than cars, more whispers and not voices. The post office clerk visualized the P.O. Box at once.

“Oh, that’s Jeremy’s. Comes on every Tuesdays,” she said. “Odd fellow. Keeps to himself.”

Julie waited. Hours passed. And then, he came.

A tall man in his mid thirties, quiet eyes, and something in the expression that seemed… familiar.

“Jeremy Cates?” she enquired, coming forward.

He hesitated. “Yes?”

“I’m Julie. Our father was Thomas Reeds.”

The silence that existed between them was oppressive.

He nodded slowly. “I know.”

“You know?”

‘Ive been aware of you and Mark since I was fifteen. He wrote letters sometimes. Never sent them.”

Julie realized that the ground was moving.

“He... wrote to you?”

Jeremy gave a sad smile. “He tried. I believe that guilt devoured him alive”, I think.

Julie offered him to sit nearby at a café. Over coffee, stories unfolded. Jeremy’s mother was the first love of his father. But when things broke down, she moved to Whitley, never revealing to Thomas that she was pregnant – till years later on.

When Thomas learned it, he attempted to make a connection again. He came even once, Jeremy said, quietly. “He came with a violin… said it helped him when he could not speak with words”.

Julie’s eyes stung.

“He never told anything to us”, she whispered. “We thought we knew him.”

“Perhaps, he thought he would spoil both sides if telling the truth,” Jeremy said. “Or perhaps he was simply afraid”.

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AI creation

In the lawyer’s office after a week, the three found themselves in the same room. Mark, silent as ever. Julie, with a sheet of questions which she knew would probably remain unanswered. And Jeremy, the brother they never even knew they had, but who had always known them.

Mr.Alden gave them a key.

“The house! – yours, if you agree.

Julie looked at her brothers. Something unspoken passed between them.

They nodded.

The door of the old house creaked open the following day. Inside there were books, boxes and yes-the old violin still in the corner.

The following day saw the door of the old house creek open. Here were books, boxes, and yes – the old violin, still laid in the corner.

But it was not the only thing, there was something else, lying in a drawer by the fireplace.

Three letters.
One for each of them.

Julie opened her with shaking hands.

“Forgive the silence. I did not intend to leave parts of me behind; hidden. But I was broken. I believed that I was able to save you by separating you. I was wrong. I hope the house could give you something I couldn’t-“a new beginning”.

Julie looked at her brothers in the eyes and smiled.

Some of the times, families are not constructed with the stories they told us, but rather, the stories that we decided to add to.

I would like to invite @solperez, @fjjrg and @mdkamran99 to take part in the challenge.

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Thanks for reading, Steemians!

Regards
artist1111