Chapter 13 - The Box Melissa Left Behind
Jason brought the box Saturday.
They met at a busy coffee shop near the river.
Mark chose a table by the window where everyone could see everyone.
Austin came because Lily asked him to.
"If it gets weird, kick me under the table," she whispered.
"How hard?"
"Brother hard."
"That's not a measurement."
"You'll know."
For the first time in days, they laughed.
Jason arrived carrying a small wooden box with a brass latch.
"Melissa gave this to my sister six months before she died," he said. "Said if Lily ever found us, it belonged to her."
Lily did not touch it.
"How did she die?"
Jason looked down.
"Overdose."
Sarah inhaled softly.
Lily's face closed.
"So she never got better."
"Not for long."
Jason pushed the box forward.
Inside were three birthday cards never mailed, a hospital bracelet from Lily's birth, a tiny pink sock, and a flash drive.
Mark stared at the cards.
"She kept those?"
"Apparently."
Lily picked up the one marked AGE SIX.
Her fingers trembled.
"Can we read these at home?"
"Of course," Sarah said.
Then Jason looked at Mark.
"There's something else."
Mark almost laughed.
"There always is."
Jason pulled out a folded legal form.
"Melissa listed me as possible biological father on a medical document when she was hospitalized. It doesn't give me rights. I'm not showing it to threaten you."
"Then why show me?"
"Because I don't want surprises later."
Mark appreciated that even while disliking him.
Lily tapped the table.
"Can you two stop talking around me like I'm a court case?"
Both men went quiet.
"Sorry," Jason said.
"Me too," Mark added.
After the meeting, they went home and opened the birthday cards one by one.
Melissa's messages were messy. Loving. Selfish. Guilty. Sometimes all in the same paragraph.
At age eight she had written: I hope Mark is still the dad you deserve. He was always better at staying than I was.
Mark stopped reading.
Lily looked at him.
"She knew."
"Knew what?"
"That you were my dad."
He nodded.
Austin sat across the room.
Lily picked up the flash drive.
"What's on this?"
They plugged it into Sarah's laptop.
One video file appeared.
MELISSA_FOR_LILY.mp4
Lily clicked play.
Melissa appeared on screen, thinner than Mark remembered, sitting in what looked like a treatment center.
She spoke for eleven minutes.
At the very end, she looked directly into the camera.
"And Lily, if Mark ever tells you blood is what makes a family... remind him of the night he chose you."
Nobody in the room moved.
Then Melissa added one final sentence.
"Because there is another child in that house who may need him to remember."
Mark stared at the screen.
May you like
The recording was dated four years earlier.
Melissa had known about Austin.
