Give in to Me (Heart of Stone #3)(42)
Author: K.M. Scott

Nina picked up a pile of letters wrapped in a red ribbon. Holding them up to show me, she read the name on the top envelope. “Tressa. Were these your mother’s? I’m guessing from your father. At least you’re like him in that.”

I shook my head, unable to believe my father had ever written my mother anything. He couldn’t even be bothered to call her on most days, so the thought of him writing love letters seemed unlikely. “My father wasn’t the type of man to write anything down, unless it made him money.”

Handing them to me, she smiled. “Well, just in case, I don’t feel right looking through them. It’s more appropriate you do it. But why are they here?”

“I took a lot of their things after the crash. Rogers must have brought them here.” I looked down at the letters sitting in my palm and wondered if they’d been from an old boyfriend before my mother and father married. The idea of my mother happily in love with someone made me happy. All those years with my father had been so filled with misery for her. The neglect. The rumors of infidelity. The coldness he seemed to enjoy showing only her. That she might have been in love with someone who cared enough for her to write his feelings down so she could forever look back and remember their time together gave me hope that at some point she’d truly been happy.

I unwrapped the bow and slid the first envelope from the top of the pile. Turning it over, I slipped my finger under the flap and easily opened it to find a single sheet of paper inside. Unfolding it, I scanned the page and found the words of a lover. Had it been my father, after all? Maybe before they’d married he’d been the kind of man she deserved.

I hated having to leave you last night, Tressa. I know it’s not forever, but it’s away from you all the same. Write me and let me know when we can see each other again.

The letter was unsigned and gave no indication who the author was. Turning it over, I saw nothing on the back to solve the mystery of who had written it.

“Who’s it from?” Nina asked as she leaned over to take a glance.

“I don’t know. There’s no signature.”

“Try another one. They’re probably all from the same person.”

Placing the letter back in its envelope, I opened another one and read words similar to the first. Whoever the letter writer was, he’d met my mother and missed her when she was gone. I read two more letters that sounded almost identical to the first ones and wondered if any of them in this stack would be signed.

“Do they have a date on them?” Nina asked as she took the last one I’d read from my grasp.

I opened up another and searched first for a date. None was written anywhere on the paper. Shaking my head, I shrugged. “Looks like another mystery for us.”

“Do you think they’re from your father?”

“I have a hard time believing that, Nina. My father and mother weren’t in love that I remember. He wasn’t the type to love anyone.”

Looking down, I read an entirely different letter that left me sure it wasn’t my father who’d written any of them.

I can’t stand even the thought of you with him anymore, Tressa. He isn’t worthy of your love. Leave him and come away with me. I may not have his money, but I can give you what he can’t or won’t. I love you and don’t want to live without you another day.

Nina reread the words to me and studied my face for my reaction. “Is this from your father?”

“I don’t think so, but if not, my mother was having an affair.”

“Maybe it was before she married your father.”

Nina’s attempt to help me think better of my mother was unnecessary. If she had cheated on my father, as far as I was concerned, all the better for her. At least she’d found love with someone.

“While you read the next one, I’m going to look for her letters to this mystery man. Maybe she had them hidden away too.”

The next letter was another plea for her to run away with the letter writer, but it did provide me with a general time period when the letter may have been written. A mention of my brother and me meant that it was definitely an affair. Closing my eyes, I silently thanked whoever this mystery man had been for at least giving her love and the chance for happiness. But had she not taken that chance because of Taylor and me?

I became convinced the name of the man my mother had fallen in love with would forever remain a secret. That wasn’t a bad thing, though. Some things should remain hidden.

The next letter’s tone was distinctly different than the others. Near the bottom of the pile, it signaled a change between him and her.

I won’t let you go. If all I can have is stolen moments with you, then I’ll take them for now. I won’t let you leave me, Tressa. We make each other happy. Just hearing you say we should end what this is nearly drove me mad last night. I won’t let you do it.

I tapped Nina on the shoulder and showed her the letter. “She wanted to leave him. Any luck finding any letters from her to him?”

“Not yet. Just pictures of you all over the place. I swear your brother must have been camera shy, Tristan.”

Folding the letter, I slid it into the envelope. “He wasn’t much for pictures. Or sports, for that matter.”

“Who took all these pictures of you and your mother? Your father?”

The memory of the one time my father attended any of my games for a mere fifteen minutes passed through my mind. “No. Rogers always took the pictures. It was him who came to see every one of my games and matches.”

Nina rested her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, honey. At least you know Rogers cared about you. I think he did.”

“I thought so too.”

She returned to searching for my mother’s letters to her mystery lover without a word, and I focused on the next to last letter in the pile next to me. My eyes scanned the lines that told of their impending break up.

Nothing is more important than love. No matter what excuse you give, I’ll give a better one to show we should be together. I won’t let you go, Tressa. I can’t. Why won’t you give in to what you know makes you happy? Come away with me. Leave him and be mine forever.

He was losing her. I sensed it in every word. He knew it too. She probably had told him their affair had to end, and he was just holding on to what used to be.

“I think I might have found something.” Nina leaned over the front of the trunk and groaned as she buried her head inside. When she straightened up, she was holding a silver tin in one hand and its lid in the other. Inside the tin were more letters but no envelopes.