Chapter 55: "A Revelation and a Choice"

The room seemed to narrow and come down on Taylor as she folded the letter in her shaking hands. The letters on the paper ran together, and she choked back a sob while trying to breathe. That which she had just read appeared to her unbelievable; yet there it was, staring her in the face and calling into question everything she had ever learned. Alex did not speak and just stared at her with a combination of concern and terror. He had seen her reaction and sensed what weighed her down before he knew what it was that he had told her. The young woman who had delivered the letter was standing at the door, shifting from one foot to the other in an obvious discomfort that pervaded the room’s silence. “What does it say?” Alex finally asked, his voice barely a whisper, as if he were afraid of the answer he was about to receive. Taylor felt her knees go, and she had to restrain herself before she could give the letter into his hands. As if talking to herself, she said softly, ‘Read it.’ She could barely contain the emotions building up in her chest. Alex took the letter, and his hands shook as hers had a few moments before. He opened the paper once more and began to read the lines of text with a calm gaze. His brow furrowed as he read on, then his face was one of utter shock and then a kind of hopelessness. “No… no… No, it can’t be. cannot be He murmured too low for anyone else to hear. “This has to be a mistake.” be Taylor shook her head, crying, ‘I’m so sorry, I could not stop him.’ “It is not a mistake, Alex. It is real, and it alters everything.” The woman at the door looked embarrassed, and she moved slightly off the door as if her presence was not wanted at the moment. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she whispered softly. “I hoped I would not be the one to deliver this message, but I felt that you had to be informed.” From the letter, Alex looked up, and, watching the woman before him fidget nervously, he could not help but narrow his eyes. “Who are you?” he wanted to know, not bothering to mask his aggression. The woman paused for a while before she could respond, which only showed that she was still in doubt as to the next course of action. “My name is Claire,” she said after a while. ‘Well, I’m Elizabeth’s niece. ’ The name struck Taylor in the stomach, as if she had been punched. Elizabeth—the woman with whom the love story of Taylor and Alex started—left the bracelet that had a great meaning in their lives. But what could her niece possibly have to do with them now? “Elizabeth’s niece?” Taylor asked; she was surprised and did not know how to take it. “Where does all of this fit in with us?” Claire frowned, looking a little lost for words, but still not wanting to let go of the conversation. ‘I understand that this is a lot to process,’ she said quietly. ‘But Elizabeth... she was my aunt, and she was very dear to my mother’ ‘After my mother passed away, she discovered some letters that Elizabeth had kept secret for many years, and one of them was written to you, Taylor. ’ Taylor felt like the blood rushed from his head, and he was almost breathless. “To me?” she said, quite surprised, and her mind was now working overtime. “But how? Why?” Claire glanced at the floor and then at her hands, which were tightly folded in her lap. “I think it is better if you read it yourself,” she said, handing her another envelope from her bag. This one was older; the paper had yellowed and the edges were worn out. Taylor took the envelope from Claire with shaking hands. It seemed to be too heavy to hold; she felt like the answers to it would determine the direction of her entire life. She carefully tore the top of the envelope and extracted the single sheet of paper that was within it. The writing was fine and neat, and it was written in script, and I knew that it was Elizabeth’s writing. Dearest Taylor, If you are reading this, then it means that I am gone, and I have a message that I would like to pass on to you. I always thought that love was the greatest of the forces of the world, with the ability to conquer time, space, and mortality. But there is something that you must know, something that I cannot tell you directly. Since the day when we met, the day you picked up my bracelet, I realized that you are a very special person. Yet, I only came to learn at a later stage that you are unique in your own way. Taylor, you are my granddaughter; I just wanted to remind you of that. Your mother, the woman who gave you birth, is my only daughter, and she had to relinquish you at birth because she did not want a past that she knew would hunt us both to consume you. The only regret that I have left for you now is that I never told you this while I was alive. I was too scared—scared of what it would do to you and the life that you have engraved for yourself. You know, dear, I loved your grandfather, and I loved him as only a wife can love a man, or so I thought. But it was not without a cost—a past that was, is, and will always be a part of both of us. After he passed away, I was holding the bag, trying to shield my daughter from the darkness that still persisted. When she realized that she was pregnant with you, she did what she considered was right for you, but it caused her so much pain. And it broke mine as well, realizing I could never know you as my own. But now that I am far away from you, you have a right to hear the truth. You have a right to know that I love you and that you are an integral part of something so much bigger than the two of us could ever dream of. I only hope that this knowledge does not weigh you down but instead helps you to live the life that you were meant to live—a life filled with love, joy, and the liberty to be yourself. For you, Taylor, I have faith in you. I always have. And I think that you and Alex are destined for each other, as your grandfather and I were. But always bear in mind that it is not always easy to love. It requires courage, it requires faith, and sometimes it requires jumping over the edge of the cliff. I hope you will pardon me for not having informed you of this before. I also hope that you will be able to open your heart to the truth and that you will be able to love your life as you should live it. With all my love, Elizabeth Taylor wiped her tears away from her eyes as she felt that she could no longer see clearly. This shocked her; she could not believe it when she read it. In a few minutes, her life as she knew it had been changed completely, and she did not know how to begin to sort it out. Alex touched her gently on the shoulder, his hand large and comforting, and he was the one to start talking to her. "Taylor, this does not alter the fact that I have feelings for you,” he said gently. "It, of course, does not alter what we have between us.” But Taylor's head shook, and she moved her hand away from his touch. “It changes everything, Alex,” she said with tears at the edge of her voice. “I’ve never felt so lost in my life. I don’t know who I am anymore. Do I find a way forward when I don’t know where I came from?” Alex felt a pang of sadness at the sight of her suffering, but he understood that she must go through it alone. “You’re still the same person, Taylor,” he said reassuringly. “You are still the woman I fell in love with, the woman I want to wake up next to for the rest of my life; it does not have to alter that.” Taylor stared at him, and there was affection and terror in her gaze. “I need to hope that, Alex," she said in a low tone. Finally, one of the patients looked at her and said, “But I don’t know how.” He embraced her, and she shivered in his arms. He swore at the man and told her to get her jacket. “We’ll sort it out,” he said. ‘We will have faith in this; as Elizabeth said, ‘let’s leap.’ And no matter the outcome, we shall do it as a team. ’ That moment when they embraced Taylor felt like a ray of hope in the middle of the storm. The truth may not have been pretty, but it did not have to annihilate them. But it could be the basis for what came next—love, strength, and the ability to face what came next. And in that moment, Taylor understood that no matter what, she would be able to get back to Alex. Because he was the place she belonged, the place where her heart was, and the only person who could put together a sense of what was going on, no matter how unbelievable it seemed.