***”Open it,” I said.***

“You sound nervous.”

“I am always nervous.”

“About my birthday card?”

“About everything. I raised you.”

He laughed, then slid his finger under the flap.

I stood at the counter pretending to rinse dishes that were already clean.

He removed the card.

Then something else.

A folded letter.

***That was new.***

I stopped moving.

Adrian unfolded it.

The color drained from his face so quickly that it frightened me.

“Adrian?”

He read it once.

Then again, more slowly.

“Baby, what is it?”

He looked up at me with an expression I had never seen before.

Not exactly fear.

Not exactly sh0ck.

Something deeper.

Like a missing puzzle piece had suddenly dropped into place, and he did not like the picture.

***”It’s not the usual message,” he said.***

My stomach dropped.

He tightened his grip on the page.

“Mom… I know who sent them.”

The room seemed to go unnaturally quiet.

Even the refrigerator sounded distant.

I walked closer.

“Who?”

He swallowed.

“The letter is signed.”

My voice came out thin.

“Signed by who?”

He looked down at the bottom of the page.

***”Thomas.”***

The name meant nothing to me.

I held out my hand.

Adrian hesitated before giving me the letter.

It read:

**Adrian,**

If you are reading this, then you are 18, and I have kept my promise as long as I was meant to.