Title: The Letters That Came Tomorrow

Episode 1: The Letter in My Mother's Room The first letter arrived on a Tuesday. I remember because Tuesdays were the days my mother washed her curtains, and the entire house smelled of detergent and the cheap lemon air freshener she bought from the woman at the end of our street. It was an ordinary afternoon. The kind that made you want to sleep until evening. Until I saw the envelope. It lay on the dining table beside my schoolbag, cream-coloured, with my name written across it in black ink. AMARA BELLO I walked towards her room, holding the letter between two fingers. She was standing beside her wardrobe, folding clothes into a basket. The moment she saw the envelope, her hands stopped moving. It was only for a second. But I noticed. "Mum?" She reached for the letter. "Where did you get this?" "On the table. Who brought it?" "Nobody." I frowned. "How would you know?" She didn't answer. Instead, she snatched the envelope from my hand and slipped it into her wrapper. That was when I knew something was wrong. My mother was many things. Strict, stubborn, occasionally dramatic. But she had never taken anything from me without an explanation. "What's inside?" I asked. "Nothing you need to worry about." "Then why are you hiding it?" She turned to face me "Mara, go to your room." I wanted to argue. I almost did. But something in her expression stopped me. She looked frightened. Not annoyed. Not angry. Frightened. I went to my room, but I didn't stay there. Twenty minutes later, I heard my mother's bedroom door close. A few minutes after that, the front door opened and shut. She had gone out. I waited until I was sure she wouldn't return immediately before creeping into her room. I knew it was wrong to search through her things. I also knew that if she had nothing to hide, she wouldn't have looked at that letter the way she did. Her wardrobe was locked. Her bedside drawer wasn't. Inside were old receipts, a broken wristwatch, photographs, and a small silver key I had never seen before. Beneath them lay a second envelope My fingers went cold. This one had no name on it. Only a date. 24 November 2009 Tomorrow. I turned it over. Someone had written a message on the back. If Amara has found this, then I have already failed to protect her. I read it once. Then again. My mother was supposed to be protecting me from something. But what? I slipped the envelope into my pocket and hurried back to my room. My hands were shaking so badly that I struggled to close the door. Then I noticed something I hadn't seen before. The envelope was already open. Inside was a single sheet of paper. There were only two sentences. Your father did not disappear the night they told you he did. And the person who knows where he is has been living in your house for seventeen years I stopped breathing for a moment. My father had been missing since I was a baby. My mother told me he left one night and never returned. There had been no funeral, no body, no explanation beyond the same tired sentence she'd repeated throughout my childhood. Some people choose to leave, Mara. But the letter said he hadn't disappeared. And somebody in our house knew the truth I heard the front door open. My mother was back. I shoved the paper beneath my mattress and ran to my bed, pretending to scroll through my phone. Her footsteps moved down the hallway. Stopped outside my door. Then came three soft knocks. "Mara?" she called. "Yes?" The handle turned. She stood in the doorway, her face pale, her eyes fixed on me. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. Then she asked a question that made my stomach drop. "Have you opened the second letter?" I couldn't move. Because I hadn't told her there was a second letter. And because, behind her, someone was standing in the dark hallway. Someone I had known my entire life. Someone who was smiling. End of Episode 1