Epilogue
Dear Aileen,
I realise now I struggle with goodbyes. I messed it up with Shaeline, and with you. It hurt to never introduce myself. Yet I imagined what it would feel like to reconcile family, blood ties I lost so many years ago.
But this, this elusiveness, was a price I had to pay for being silent all these years. My silence hurt families. I did it to protect mine, a decision made by a man who’d lost a part of him, a child.
I knew it was her. She had the power to ruin my life. I never considered hiding would ruin the one good thing I cherished: my Shaeline. It tainted our life, the shame of not standing on the side of justice.
If I learned anything, dear niece, it’s that it takes a second of bad luck to rob you of life. But a lifetime to build love. And love is life. Once
