She Discovered Too Late novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Letter

Arlene put the envelope into Miriam's hand and stepped back.

Miriam looked at her own name on the front, in Arlene's neat writing.

"He made me promise to give it to you after," Arlene said. "This is after."

Miriam sat down on the bench outside my room.

She opened the flap with her thumbnail, and the whole corridor went quiet around her.

I stood behind her shoulder and read it with her.

The first pages were in Arlene's careful hand.

Miriam,

If Arlene is giving you this, I'm dead, and Teddy has shown you what I couldn't.

I'm not writing to make you cry. I want four things done.

One. My organs go to the people on the registry list, not to Colby. The names are on the form in the hospice drawer.

Two. Cremate me. Do not put me in the Ellingham plot.

Three. Take the ashes to the hill past the water tower on Pine Road, where Mom took us to pick wildflowers. No stone, no name.

Four. The hospice building on Cedar Street belongs to Ellingham Holdings. Sign it over to the people who work in it. Arlene will tell you who.

Miriam turned the page.

I'm not angry anymore. It took a long time, and I'm tired, and you were the best sister I ever had for the first thirteen years.

I would have liked one more year of being your brother.

Cedric

She read it twice. Her lips moved on the word "wildflowers."

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