Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

over what I’ve done is eating away at me. I could say it a million times and it won’t change the outcome, but I truly am sorry for everything you went through. I’ve enclosed some pictures of her and her daughter as well as her address. I’ve also enclosed the letter you wrote me all those years ago, trying to tell me the truth. The one I should’ve believed—in case you need it. I know I’ll never see you again in this lifetime, but maybe in the next one, we’ll meet and be able to make things right. I hope that one day you get to meet her, and if you do, please give her a hug from me.

Love always,

Tommy

I covered my mouth with my hand, choking back my sob. Everything about their story was so tragic. “He killed himself because of the cancer or because of his guilt?”

“I think it was a little bit of both,” she replied.

“The way he did it…I just can’t imagine what must’ve been going through his head to jump into a ravenous ocean.”

“That was Tommy. He chose to end his life in the place he loved the most. He was an avid surfer back in the day, always loved being in the water. I guess in a way it was fitting that he let the ocean take his life instead of cancer. I have something else that I need to give you.” She hesitated for a split second before reaching back into her purse and pulling out another envelope. This one had my name on it. She slid it across the table and explained, “He sent this with my letter and asked me to give it to you if we ever met up. Read it when you’re up to it.” She covered my hand with hers.

“Thanks,” I whispered, not knowing when or if I’d ever muster up the courage to take a look at what he had written. I knew our time was running short. She had to leave soon to get ready to head to the airport, but I still had so many questions. I wanted to know more about her and her life. “So are you going to do what he asked? Are you going to call his brother out for what he did to you?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed and stared past me deep in thought. “Part of me wants to see that son of a bitch get his due. It makes me sick to my stomach to think he did this to someone else, and possibly others who haven’t come forward. But now that I’ve finally met you, I feel so at peace with everything in my past. I know that may sound weird, but I do.”

“I don’t think it sounds weird at all.”

“The bond you feel with a child you’ve carried inside you never goes away, regardless if you’ve never met them or not. It’s so hard to explain.”

I swallowed hard and blinked away another bout of tears. “I understand completely.” She gazed at me thoughtfully over her coffee cup, allowing me to collect my emotions to move on with my story. “When my daughter was four years old, I became pregnant again. We were ecstatic because I had a few miscarriages prior to that. Jack, my ex-husband, was…is an FBI agent. He was working on a big organized crime case at the time. They had made some pretty big arrests of some of the top people involved.”

I sucked in some air and shook my head, trying desperately to gather the courage to continue. “I was just about eight months pregnant and taking my daughter to dance class. I didn’t know that I was being followed by someone related to the case Jack had been working on. Someone who wanted to pay him back for”—I looked away and bit down on my lip—“leading the case. We were on the highway and he came over in my lane. I had nowhere to go but into the concrete median that was straight ahead. I was doing well over sixty miles an hour when we hit it. I didn’t realize who this person was that was following me until the last few seconds. I knew deep inside my heart that they had something to do with the case Jack had been spending every second of the day on.”

“Oh my God.” Francesca’s eyes widened, and she reached across the table for my hand.

“I ended up losing the baby in the impact. I didn’t even know what was happening at the time. When I finally came out of it days later in the hospital, my baby was gone. When I woke up, Jack had told me they had done an emergency C-section, and I begged him to bring the baby to me. I actually thought he was okay. I wanted to hold him so badly. That was the first time I had ever seen Jack cry, and I knew our little boy didn’t make it. Then there was Kara. She had to have emergency surgery and ended up with a broken collarbone and broken ribs. I blamed Jack for all of it.”

She tilted her head and stared at me thoughtfully. “It’s human nature when something traumatic like that happens to want to blame someone else.”

“I guess.” I nodded and dried my tear-stained face with my shirt sleeve. “But I blamed Jack for the rest of our marriage. I totally shut down on him. I was angry all the time. I refused to talk to him about it. I refused to talk to anyone about it for that matter. I never once took into consideration how he was feeling. He had lost his son too. He had to be strong for Kara when she came out of surgery, and for me when I woke up. He could’ve lost everyone that day. I’m sure that stayed with him for a long time.”

“Did you ever tell him you were sorry?”

“Funny you should ask that.” I traced my