Joshua looked up from the letter, felt the murkiness of his childhood, of Edith constantly hovering over him, and he thought about his mother’s words. This was the way he remembered her, happy and excited about the future. But he was confused. If she was so happy, why would she have abandoned him? And Leo?
I would never leave you willingly.
But she had, hadn’t she? And why did it take her twenty years to contact me?
The sky was pale now and the low clouds cast shadows over the sea, making it difficult for him to read the soft print, but Joshua, hungry for his mother’s words, continued to read.