My Wife Walked Out After Learning Our Newborn Son Had Down Syndrome — I Hated Her For All These Years Until We Learned The Truth On His 18th Birthday

PART 4

I looked over at her. She wasn’t smiling anymore. Her teacup rattled slightly against its saucer as she set it down, both hands trembling.

I looked back down at the envelope.

The date written across the front, in a hand I hadn’t seen in eighteen years, was from the week Jasper was born.

The handwriting was Vivian’s.

“Odile,” I said slowly, using her first name for maybe the third time in eighteen years of knowing her. “What is this?”

Mrs. Delacroix wiped her eyes with the back of one hand.

“Foster,” she said, “she didn’t leave because she stopped loving either of you. I promised her, eighteen years ago, that I wouldn’t let you or Jasper see that letter until he turned eighteen. I’ve been keeping that promise every single day since, even on the days it felt genuinely wrong to keep it.”