Please Me, Daddy novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Old Man's Letter

I opened my mother's letter with Quentin standing three feet behind me, and he did not come closer.

It was one page.

Dad, I'm taking her out of your building.

I won't have her learn to count money before she learns to be loved.

If you ever want to know her, come to the house yourself, not through a lawyer.

It was dated nineteen years ago.

I read it twice and sat down in the old man's chair.

"He never opened it," I said.

"Livia."

"Nineteen years. He had a drawer, and he kept it shut, and he died with it unread."

Under it lay a second envelope, thicker, in a shaky hand I had never seen.

To whoever sits at this desk after me.

I read it out loud, because I didn't trust myself to read it silently.

"I have a granddaughter, Livia, whom I never met."

I swallowed.

"The company has been taken from me, and I can't take it back. If she comes through this door, she will be in danger from the men who want her name."

I kept reading.

"Give her the chair. Protect her until she can protect herself. I was a poor grandfather. Please be a better one."

I put the pages down.

My voice sounded very quiet in the empty room.

"Who sits at this desk, Quentin?"

He didn't answer for a moment.

"I do."

"He asked you to protect me."

"He asked whoever came after him."

"Did you know?" I said. "Did you know what was in this drawer when you walked in on that first Monday and took one look at me and decided to say nothing?"

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