The Unseen Love: A Mother's Secret

away two days afte

s simple, as s

ner, a few distant relatives I ba

bbing his eyes with a handkerch

ss, a hollow ache where

isted and complicated by a

ft, I lingered by the

arm around me

t I wasn' t.

wn mother had, with her dying

nd I went to the old

sign leaning against the porc

his things out to a flashy, though cle

g grin on his face. "Just clearing out some of my stu

r "my money," but it was im

s things?" I as

ou know? I told the realtor they

the recipe books and the cedar che

, yeah, sure. Attic' s this way. H

e was thick. He clearly

arning look, but

nd crammed with forgotten o

everything like

under the eaves, sa

ag it to the center of the room

Em?" Mark asked gently, wiping

said, my voice barely a whis

lifted the

cedar and lavende

of neatly folded

em, the re

the pages filled with spidery handwriti

und Cake,' " I read alou

ding a piece of

but also endlessly supporti

Maybe some good old-fash

They just looked

per into

e linens, I

faded cloth, and a large, fla

rnals. The same spidery

bservations about the weather, th

ened the

s, dozens of them, exquisitely detailed d

ommon and Latin name, and notes

a hint of their color, were t

ry was bre

at a delicate rendering of a Lad

de cover of the portfolio read: "Flor

aguely remembered Mom mentioning a "c

sive laugh, as if Elara was just an

at these drawings we

io, a strange feelin

t in monetary terms, necessarily, b

little about, to a woman I' d never met but

nk?" I asked Mar

journals, flipping thr

t... this looks like mo

n a history show once. About rare Americana, old doc

g something valuable? After

n. She would have sold them if they wer

still there, a sour

ked at, would it? What if your mom didn' t know? Or wha

t if

on, Emily? You' re the one who loves hist

s words. Could

ss inheritance hold a secret

fetched. Too much

carefully penned words in the journals, a tiny spark of cu