Chapter 5: The Name I Never Expected
I hadn’t heard my father’s voice in seven years.
Not directly.
Not through a phone call.
Not through a message.
Not even through someone else.
I had convinced myself he was a person from another life.
A ghost.
A chapter that ended.
But now, sitting beside Wesley, hearing that my father was somehow connected to everything happening, I felt sixteen years old again.
The girl standing in the hallway.
The suitcase by the front door.
The sound of her mother crying behind a closed bedroom door.
“Corinne?””
Wesley’s voice pulled me back.
I realized I had stopped breathing.
“Where is he?””
“I don’t know.””
“Then why did Amanda say that?””
Wesley grabbed his phone again.
“I’ll call her back.””
“No.””
He looked at me.
I shook my head.
“I need to talk to her.””
Twenty minutes later, Amanda arrived at the park.
She looked nervous.
That scared me more than anything.
Amanda was the person who joked through everything.
She made people laugh at funerals.
She danced when she was stressed.
Seeing fear on her face felt wrong.
“What happened?”” I asked.
She sat down.
“Corinne…”
“Just tell me.””
She took a deep breath.
“I found an old email.””
“From who?””
She looked at Wesley.
Then back at me.
“Your father.””
My stomach tightened.
“Why would you have an email from my father?””
“I don’t.””
She pulled out her phone.
“I found it in an old account connected to the messages you sent me years ago.””
She showed me the screen.
There was a forwarded email.
The sender name was enough.
*Richard Vale.*
My father.
The subject line read:
*About Corinne*
My hands shook.
“I never opened it.””
Amanda whispered.
“But I saw enough to know something was wrong.””
I clicked it.
The email was short.
Too short.
Almost like he had been afraid someone else would read it.
Amanda,
I know you care about my daughter. That is why I need you to understand something.
Corinne believes I abandoned her.
But she never knew the truth.
I stopped reading.
The world became quiet.
Wesley leaned closer.
“What truth?””
I couldn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
I kept reading.
I left because staying would have destroyed her.
My eyes blurred.
Destroyed me?
The anger I had carried for years suddenly felt unstable.
The email continued.
Your mother made sure Corinne would hate me. She needed someone to blame, and I allowed myself to become that person.
I looked at Amanda.
“She knew about this?””
Amanda shook her head.
“No.””
“Then why did you keep it?””
“I didn’t know what to do.””
I kept reading.
The final sentence made my heart stop.
If Corinne ever meets someone named Sterling Hayes, tell her the truth before it’s too late.
I dropped the phone.
Wesley caught it.
“Sterling?””
Amanda nodded.
“That’s why I called.””
I stood up.
“No.””
Wesley looked at me.
“What?””
“My father knew Sterling?””
Nobody answered.
Because none of us knew.
But then Wesley’s phone buzzed.
A message.
From Sterling.
Wesley opened it.
His face changed.
“What?””
He handed me the phone.
The message was only one sentence.
*I think it’s time Corinne knows why her father and I made the choice we did.*
My heart pounded.
“What choice?””
Wesley looked at me.
“I don’t know.””
Another message arrived.
This time, it was longer.
*Meet me tonight. Come alone.*
I stared at the screen.
May you like
Then another line appeared.
*Bring the courage to hear something you’ve spent your entire life avoiding.*
