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“I know you think I doubted you,” Robert says gently “But I had to ensure that you wereAhts You tend to keep your cards close to your chest But the way you acted the day you came to see me, I knew you loved her for sure”

I narrowsure I fulfilled the clause”

Robert blushes “Well, yes I had no choice I had to ensure the clause was fulfilled It’sYour father toldyou went through with it Well, I know you’re not going to back out of today so I figured you could have it now”

I frown as Robert hands me a letter He smiles aardly at me

“I’ll leave you in peace to read it And I’ll see you at the ceremony Good luck and best wishes”

As Robert leaves, I shut the door behind hie my mind Is this another trick ofday?

But as , I feel a rush of eh me This isn’t a trick It really is from him

To my only son,

I know that today is thethis letter I always knew you’d ry with me, or at least a little irritated I always did knoind you up But I did this for you with good intentions

You ht be surprised to learn that I know exactly who you’retoday I’ve seen the way you look at Amelia I knew that when I instructed you to marry for love, to marry someone you’d never want to be apart fro the rulesyou thought she was off-lier than you that you could never be together

But love is a funny thing It est places And I saw the way that Airl like her spent so long working as a maid, and it wasn’t because she enjoyed the work It’s because she fell in love with you I’m sure you can see that now

When I realizedto an end, I knew I had to step in and try to get the pair of you together You only ever needed a little push, and by putting everything on the line, I forced your hand I aht be a difficult pill to s, I’ve got you exactly where you want to be

The inheritance is yours, but that’s not what today is really about Today is about true love It’s about taking a leap of faith It’s about going against the grain and having the life you’ve alanted I hope you have the best day of your life I’m sorry that I can’t be there to see it I wish you a lifetime of happiness, son

All my love,

Dad

I have to take a deep breath to co the letter So he knew He knew all along He read me like a book and he put all of this in place to ensure that I ended up happy All this ti to mess with me, with rave

But now I see what I lost sight of My dad lovedout for me, whether I knew it or not

And now so s make sense As I look back he did take a shine to Amelia, treated her differently from the rest of the staff He spoke of her often when he ithher work, but now I knoas aboutto tell me that it was okay in his oay That I could be with her, that he approved And now, h he’s the puppeteer that s into place, he’s the one person on’t be here to see it

I have to sit down for ati of each of the to do I’ve spent far too ry with ht I did He was an even better person than I gave him credit for