His Secret [Completed]

Chapter Thirty-Three

Happy birthday, my beautiful granddaughter. You're twenty-five today and it's tearing me apart knowing I can't be there to celebrate with you. You were three years old when I was diagnosed and it's been an emotional final year of my life. I can feel my body shutting down and I don't know how long I have left.

My time is coming to an end and I'm so sad that I won't be here to witness your milestones in life. I won't be there to hug you on your graduation or hand you your gifts on your birthdays, but most importantly, I won't be there for you on your wedding day - the day I always dreamed of from the moment I held you in my arms. Your beautiful little face lit up when I held you for the first time and it was the proudest moment of my life. When Mary first told me the news about her pregnancy, I couldn't wait to meet you and now she's pregnant again. Your little brother will be born soon and I don't think I'll be around to see him, so I've also written him a letter.

You're probably wondering how this envelope ended up in the hands of the person who gave it to you. My instructions were specific and for you to understand everything, I have to start from when I was eighteen. It was the year I met your grandfather and we'd been together for around six months when I met his best friend Noah and Noah's fiancée Elizabeth. Ellie soon became my best friend and I was her maid of honour at her wedding. She and her husband had a son.

Ellie and Noah were successful and owned their own company. It was given to them as a wedding gift from Ellie's mother, and they kept it going for a while until they built up their own. After their business took off, your grandfather and I moved out of state for work and we lost contact with them after a while. When Mary was born, it was the best day of my life and shortly following that, the worst day of my life came crashing in. Your grandfather was killed in an oil rig explosion six months later, he was twenty-five. His life insurance money came through, but it still didn't make up for the tragic loss I felt and I wanted to sue, I wanted to give him justice but without a job or any qualifications, keeping the 25,000 dollars life insurance money made the most sense. The company I had worked for gave me my position back and I moved back to New York.

A few years later I sent your mother off to school and a minute later there was a knock at the door. When I opened it I felt as though I'd been transported back to my past. Ellie was standing there after fifteen years with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her husband Noah had died in his sleep that morning, he'd had a heart attack. I threw myself at her, it'd been such a long time. I was the only person she could think of going to. His body was still laid in their bed and she'd been walking around the streets for hours still in her pyjamas. I took her in and ran her a bath, she borrowed some of my clothes and we just talked. I'd called people to take care of his body because she couldn't bring herself to do it.

That was the beginning of our real friendship. We relied on each other because we had no one else. Every weekend from that one I'd go to her estate and we'd have afternoon tea. I watched their family grow and she watched ours do the same. I met her son Alan, his wife Sherry and their adorable son Noah, who was named after his grandfather. When you were old enough, the McKenzie estate was the first place I took you. You probably won't remember that time twenty-two years later but for me, that day was one of my saddest. I was sitting with Ellie in the garden when my phone rang with the life-changing news that I had cancer. As tears fell down my cheeks, I remember you stumbling over to me with a small toy mug in your hand and said it would make me feel better. You were three years old and you didn't understand, but it made me want to fight through the pain. Because of you and I wanted to survive and a year later, when I found out about your brother, it only made me want to fight harder.

Ellie immediately told me she would pay for the best treatment and at first, I refused. She'd said she had more than enough money than she knew what to do with and insisted I get the best treatment. I did that for a while until they told me I wouldn't make it and I had a year to live. I stopped the money from Ellie and told her the truth, yet each week I still found the money being transferred into my account, and the amount steadily increased each time. When I asked Ellie what was going on, she told me she wanted me to have the money and spend it how I wished during the last year of my life, and not to worry about taking care of our family.

I tried giving the money to your mother and father but they refused, they were far too proud. That's when Ellie and I came up with the plan to give it to you and your unborn brother. She gave me five-hundred thousand dollars. I've divided it between our family, some to your parents and some to you and your brother. Inside this envelope is a key which will open a safety deposit box, which contains the information of a bank account with the money inside. I want you to use it wisely, but spend it how you wish. Don't forget that with money comes greed, and I don't want that for you.

You're probably wondering how this letter reached you and I can only hope Ellie gave it to you personally. If that's not the case, then it means she entrusted it to her son Alan. The McKenzie family mean the world to me and I would love for you to get to know them, especially Noah. He was smitten with you from the moment you hid behind my leg when he offered you his toy car.

Sophia, you mean the absolute world to me and I'll be watching over you from up above. I'll see you soon, but hopefully not too soon.

I love you, darling. Take care of yourself.

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Sorry this chapter is so short but the letter needed to have its own chapter.
Next update coming on Wednesday :)
-Sophi