My eyes snapped up from the letter onto her. Oh, if she only knew being taken by the sea was Heath’s worst fear. Heath must have suffered so, watching all those innocent people drowning, knowing he would be one of them.
With a piercing pain in my heart, I swallowed hard, and with trembling hands and tears that streamed down my cold, numb face, I opened the letter, as the empathetic woman rested her warm hand on my shoulder.
My darling wife, Lillian,
I spend what I believe may be my last moments on earth, staring at your beautiful photograph, feeling your love fill my heart, and it gives me profound peace.
Since the moment I met you, when I was only a boy on our beloved lighthouse station, I have been in love with you, and since then have loved no other. I realized I’ve never confessed what drove me to forsake you in your most troubled times, how I shunned you when you needed me most, for I’ve been too ashamed.
All the years you were gone, not one moment passed without me thinking of you, hoping you were alive somewhere and well. I could only speculate as to what had come of you on the night you disappeared from our lighthouse station. I prayed every night you were safe, cared for, and that I would someday see you again. With every year that passed, my heartache became greater and greater, and it was all I could do to go on. Then came the day I learned you were alive. My heart soared as high as the heavens, until news came that you had become involved with a married man, Richard Parker, and were a star in his seedy burlesque show. My heart sank. All the years I waited for you, your wholesome vision filling every one of my dreams, believing you had to be alive and in love with me, waiting for the day we would reunite, ended the moment I learned of your new life, or so I thought. I selfishly felt betrayed. It was then that I turned to the first woman who reminded me of my first innocent childhood love. It was my way of secretly hurting you, for unknowingly hurting me. It wasn’t until you returned to Savannah, so weak and ill, when I briefly cared for you, that I finally began to realize what a fool I was, that you were just a child victim in a very grown-up world, and your innocence was lost through no fault of your own. However, I feared it was too late for us. I had wrongfully committed myself to another, and didn’t know how to abandon the relationship without hurting that innocent person. Then one day it came to me. I loved you so much, I would have done anything to win you back. Then all too quickly, I came to learn of your marriage to Ayden. I was too late! I had lost you again. I was angry with myself, never you. I’m sorry for all I put you through those first months after I returned home to Jasper Island. How you came to love me after the way I treated you still remains a mystery to me.
Now my deepest regret on this tragic night, Lillian, is that I didn’t stay and fight for you the night Ayden returned from the dead, and instead, surrendered.
All these years you have remained my wife in my heart and soul. I pray not to perish on this star-filled night; I pray to make it home to you, Lillian, and into your loving arms. I will fight my last breath to return to you. However, if not in this life, my love, then in eternity. I will be waiting there for you, Lillian.
Love,
Your husband, Heath
I visited to Italy, France, Greece, and South Africa, but found the place closest to home in Southampton, England. Heath had owned a quaint, picturesque cottage along the coast, where I lived in solitude, surrounded and comforted by his photographs and personal belongings, through two world wars, until one day, my eldest granddaughter, Heather, wrote to me, imploring me to return to the States.
The lighthouse, abandoned long ago, is going to be restored, Grandmother. Come and tell the Historical Society your story.
The lighthouse stood just as tall and noble as I remembered. Heather and her husband, Gregory, Thomas and Audrey, along with two more of my grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, together stepped onto the island. My thoughts drifted back in time.
“Are you going up into the tower, Great-Grandma Lillian?” my youngest great-grandchild asked.
“No, Tommy,” Gregory laughed at the suggestion. “Your great grandmother can’t climb all those stairs anymore.”
“Come, Tommy, I’ll show you around,” I said defiantly, and I took hold his small hand and slowly led him along.
“Over there used to be the fog signal house, and the three houses ahead that are fortunately still standing were called the keepers’ quarters. The largest one was my house with your great-grandfather, Ayden,” I explained. “You go and explore. I have something I need to do. Then I will take you up to the top of the tower so you can look out onto the endless sea.”
Tommy excitedly scurried off, and I quietly stole into the deserted, empty house. I took a moment to gaze around, remembering back to when I was a little girl. I thought of Momma and Daddy when they were happy, long before Momma died, before my life fell apart.
My mind then drifted to Ayden and Heath, and I recalled how young they were then, and how in what seemed like a mere fleeting moment, we were all grown up and fighting for love.
Gradually, I drifted up the narrow creaky stairs, down the dark hall, and into the room where my son was born and Ayden died. I stood motionless in the middle of the room. I sensed Ayden there, and as a warm ocean breeze blew through the broken windows, I felt his peaceful presence and smiled.
From my purse, I remembered what I came to do. With tears in my eyes, I read Daddy’s letter again, for the last time. Ayden had given it to me many years earlier, when he found it behind some boxes in the fog signal house.
“The envelope was addressed to me in care of the editor of the magazine. It was returned by sender, never opened,” Ayden, explained. I never got that letter. Apparently, Ayden had stashed it away to protect me, and had all but forgotten about it.
My Dearest Lillian,
I have finally found the words to write and tell you how I have missed you. I’ve mourned the day I left you in Savannah, as I am plagued with deepest regret.
In the years past, since we’ve been apart, I’ve tried to find the courage to bring you home, and have shamefully lost my nerve time and time again.
Without your mother’s strength, love, and light to guide me through life, as steadfast as any lighthouse, I have succumbed to my own despair over losing her. I have been half the man I should have been, and became an unworthy father when I abandoned you years ago.
I couldn’t believe my eyes the day I saw your beautiful face gracing the cover of a magazine. There you were after so long, right in front of my eyes. I realized then I needed to stop mourning for Amelia, make right of my wrong, and write to you, begging for forgiveness and pleading with you to allow me back into your life.
I’m not certain you would consider forgiving me, and I wouldn’t blame you. Please know I have learned what a tragic mistake I made, that your mother would have been ashamed of what I have done, and that I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you, Lillian.
I want to be your father again, and this time, you can entrust your heart to me, as I swear never to fail you again.
Daddy
I opened Momma’s journal and walked to the closet. As I placed it on the top shelf, a wilted rose petal floated out and into the breeze, landing by my feet. Slowly, I bent down, gently picked it up, and held onto it, until suddenly it disappeared in my hand. I heard Heath’s soft voice call out for me somewhere in the distance, and then his handsome vision appeared with arms reaching for me, surrounded by the most brilliant heavenly white light I had ever seen. “It’s time, Lillian. It’s time to come be with me.”
Through the sunset of my life, I contentedly recalled the people I loved and many memorable events with great clarity. Never did I lose my deep love for Ayden, my ardent passion for Heath, and my fondest memories of Momma and Daddy. I’d come to learn, through my most troubled, lonely times, that the darkest of days inevitably turn into light.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
<
br /> Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Box Set: The ArringtonTrilogy Page 93