On the way to the cinema office, I opened up to Edward, probably to calm my nerves.
‘My mum had Alzheimer’s,’ I explained, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
‘It started when she was pregnant with me.
Her memory was…unpredictable.
Some days she knew exactly who I was.
And other days she looked at me like I was a stranger.’
Edward nodded gravely.
‘That must have been hard for you.’
‘It was,’ I said.
‘Especially because my father – I call him Thomas – decided to send her to a nursing home.
I understand why he did it, but over time he just stopped visiting her.
When my grandmother died, all the responsibility fell on me.
He helped financially, but he was…absent.
That’s the best word to describe him.
‘aloof. Always distant.’
Edward hardly said anything, but his presence kept me going.
When we reached the cinema, I froze before opening the door to Thomas’s office.
Inside, he was sitting at his desk, papers neatly spread out in front of him.
His sharp, penetrating gaze slid over me, then Edward.
‘What’s up?’
‘Hi, Dad. This is my friend Edward,’ I murmured.
‘Go on.’ His face remained unmoved.
‘I need to ask you about a man who worked here years ago.
About a woman named Evelyn.’
He froze for a split second, then leaned back in his chair.
‘I don’t discuss former employees.’
‘You have to make an exception,’ I insisted.
‘Edward has been looking for her for decades.
We deserve answers.’
Thomas’s gaze slid to Edward and narrowed slightly.
‘I don’t owe him anything. In fact, neither do you.’
Edward spoke for the first time.
‘I loved her. She was everything to me.’
Thomas’s jaw tensed.
‘Her name wasn’t Evelyn.’
‘What?’ – I blinked.
‘She called herself Evelyn, but her real name was Margaret,’ he admitted, and his words cut the air.
‘Your mother.
She made up that name because she was having an affair with him,’ he pointed at Edward, ’and thought I wouldn’t recognise it.’
Silence hung in the room. Edward’s face went pale.
‘Margaret?’
‘She was pregnant when I found out,’ Thomas continued bitterly.
‘By you, as it turned out.’
He looked at me, his cold expression trembling for the first time.
‘I thought if I cut her off from him, she’d rely on me.
But that didn’t happen. And when you were born…’
Thomas sighed heavily.
‘I knew I wasn’t your father.’
I felt dizzy and waves of disbelief came over me.
‘You knew all along?’
‘I cared about her,’ he said, avoiding my gaze.
‘About you. But I couldn’t stay.’
Edward’s voice cut through the silence.
‘Margaret is Evelyn?’
‘She was Margaret to me,’ Thomas answered dryly.
‘But apparently with you she wanted to be someone else.’
Edward sank into a chair, his hands trembling.
‘She never told me that. I…I didn’t know anything.’
I shifted my gaze between the two of them, feeling my heart racing.
So Thomas wasn’t my father at all.
‘I think,’ I said, ’we should go visit her. Together.’
I looked at Edward and then turned to Thomas, holding his gaze.
‘The three of us. Christmas is a time of forgiveness, and if there was ever a moment to make things right, it’s now.’
For a moment, I thought Thomas would chuckle derisively or dismiss the idea.
But to my surprise, he hesitated, his stern gaze softening.
Silently, he rose, picked up his coat, and nodded.
‘Let’s do it,’ he said hoarsely, putting on his coat.
We drove to the nursing home in silence.
Edward sat next to me, his hands folded tightly in his lap.
Thomas sat in the back, his posture tense, his gaze fixed on the window.
When we arrived, the festive wreath on the door of the establishment seemed out of place.
Mum was sitting in her usual place by the window in the living room, her frail figure wrapped in a warm knitted cardigan.
She was looking out the window, her face seemed distant, as if she were lost in another world.
Her hands lay still in her lap, even as we came closer.
‘Mum,’ I called softly, but there was no response.
Edward took a step forward, his movements slow and careful.
He looked up at her.
‘Evelyn.’ The change was instantaneous.
Her head turned towards him, there was clarity in her eyes.
A light seemed to come on inside her.
Slowly she stood up.
‘Edward?’ – she whispered.
He nodded.
‘It’s me, Evelyn. It’s me.’
Tears filled her eyes, and she took an uncertain step forward.
‘You’re here.’
‘I never stopped waiting,’ he replied, his eyes glistening with tears as well.
As I watched them, I felt my heart fill with feelings I couldn’t fully comprehend.
It was their moment, but it was also mine.
I turned to Thomas, who stood a few steps behind me with his hands in his pockets.
His usual sternness was gone, replaced by something that seemed almost vulnerable.
‘We did the right thing to come,’ I said quietly.
He nodded faintly, but said nothing.
His gaze lingered on Mum and Edward, and for the first time I saw something resembling regret.
Outside, the snow began to fall quietly, blanketing the world in a calm, peaceful blanket.
‘Let it not end here,’ I said, interrupting the silence.
‘It’s Christmas time.
How about we grab a hot chocolate and watch a Christmas film?
Together.’
Edward’s eyes sparkled.
Thomas hesitated.
‘That sounds…good,’ he said hoarsely, but his voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.
On that day, four lives intertwined in ways none of us could have imagined.
We began a new story together that took years to reach its conclusion – and a new beginning.
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