He Stopped His Fiancée's Hand and Claimed the Salesgirl as His Wife

CHAPTER 4 - THE LETTER THAT NEVER ARRIVED

"I loved you every day you were gone."

Elena stared at the envelope as if it might burn her.

The paper had yellowed. The corner was bent. But the handwriting was unmistakable now that she let herself really see it. Not the forged signature on the divorce papers. This was the looping hand that had once left notes in the sugar bowl and on the bathroom mirror.

Nathan did not open it.

He pushed it toward her.

"It was meant for you."

Her fingers shook so badly she had to steady them against the table. Inside was a letter and a train ticket stub from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, dated three days after she had received the fake divorce papers.

She unfolded the letter.

Elena, If you are reading this, it means I missed you at the apartment again. I don't understand what's happened, but I know you would never leave without speaking to me. I'm going to your aunt Rosa's in Santa Fe next. If I still can't find you, I will keep trying. No paper will end this marriage unless we stand in the same room and say the words ourselves. I love you. Nathan

A tear dropped onto the page.

Aunt Rosa had died the year before. Elena had never gone there because Margaret had told her Nathan was already in Chicago with another woman and had no intention of returning.

Every lie had been placed with care.

Nathan looked wrecked. "I went to your aunt's. A neighbor told me she'd moved to Arizona and taken you with her. Then my father had his stroke. Everything collapsed. By the time I could leave again, my mother said the divorce had been finalized."

Elena folded the letter against her chest.

For years she had built her survival around one belief: he had chosen to leave.

Now that belief was gone, and the empty space it left was terrifying.

She stood. "I need the truth from her. All of it."

They returned to the salon office together.

Margaret sat very straight in a velvet chair, as if posture could still save her.

Elena placed the letter on the desk between them.

Margaret's eyes flickered.

"Why?" Nathan asked. "Not because you disliked her. That's too small for this."

Margaret said nothing.

Then Elena noticed the tremor in the older woman's hands.

And for the first time, she saw not power, but fear.

Margaret whispered, "Because your father wasn't your biological father. And when I learned Elena was pregnant, I panicked. I thought if you built a family, the truth would come out in ways I could no longer control."

Nathan went rigid.

Margaret looked at him with desperate eyes. "There is another man. He has been asking questions again."

Just then the salon receptionist knocked once and opened the door.

"Mr. Vale," she said nervously, "there's an older gentleman outside asking for Elena. He says he's her uncle."

Elena turned sharply.

She had no living uncle.