A truth unfolds

As she walked through the park Megan could not help but notice the man staring at her with such an intense scowl across his brow.

It was the same early morning walk just like every day when she walks Loulou but now that Megan had noticed the same man four days in a row a slight feeling of fear began to wash over her. It was early morning after all and they were the only two people in the park. Yes, Megan decided today she would cut her morning walk short and head home. That was until as she turned the corner the man in question, the man who she had just noticed staring at her was standing right in front of her with his eyes fixated on her.

Megan froze with fear unable to move not understanding why the man had been following her but somehow within her fear she knew he would not hurt her. The man had his hand stretched out towards Loulou however instead of instinctively protecting Megan the sweet little poodle licked the treat that was being extended by the man.

It was his eyes, she thought to herself. He had such kind eyes but also in the moment their stare locked she could see sadness, a sadness that gripped this man’s soul, a sadness that had engulfed him almost drowning and suffocating him to the brink of extinction... yes that is what Megan saw in the eyes of her father the first time she looked at him.

For Bruce the process seemed so long and arduous. He will never forget the day when he was told that his daughter was now a grown woman who was very much alive and well.

The pain and anguish washed over him almost as if an ocean of waves was flooding a deserted beach. Bruce lost his balance while his thoughts and mind spiraled out of control unable to piece together the words that were just spoken to him and even though he reached out to the table with his hand to break his fall Bruce collapsed into a ball on the floor shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. How ironic that this poor man endured the same pain identically to the night when he lost his first wife. That same fateful night that Bruce had his daughter stolen away from him, that same fateful night that had Barbara set her deceitful plan into motion. A plan that would eventually succumb to her own wrath in the most karmic way.

After a few minutes of that sinking feeling Bruce’s mind switched on and even though he felt like throwing up instinctively he knew what he had to do. All he could think was ‘well if that wasn’t my daughter I buried with Violet then where is she…?’ Yes, it was a dark insidious torrid question that was asked and a question that needed to be answered.

It had been the worst week of his life, the week Bruce buried Violet. Even though he knew there was nothing that he could have done to stop the virus taking his wife he truly thought that delivering the baby before violet took her last breath would have saved Megan’s life. Bruce was wanting that part of Violet to keep at least. He wanted his little daughter’s eyes to look into so he could still see the love of his life looking back. Bruce never being a selfish man only asked for one thing and that was if he lost his wife would the doctors do everything to save his little girl but as he sat alone praying alone with tears staining his cheeks Bruce knew it was not good news when as he looked up one of the nurses came to sit down next to him and asked to speak with him privately.

Bruce had not only lost his beloved wife but due to unforeseen circumstances and with the baby being starved of oxygen for too long Bruce had now lost his baby also. The miracle baby that had been conceived on their last European getaway before the pandemic swept the world, the miracle baby doctors told Violet she may never have, and as the nurse held Bruce’s hand and offered her support and kind words she couldn’t help but smile as a baby was wheeled past in a nicu bed. A baby crying out for its mother. A baby who would grow to have the same beautiful kind heart just like her mothers.

As Loulou sat next to the bench eating her treat the man had just given her Megan stared at the man intently wondering not only who he was by why was he here. Bruce’s look of astonishment somehow puzzled Megan and even though she felt as if she should pick up Loulou and run she was unable to, it was as if someone or something bigger had bought them together and she wanted to know why.

“Good morning” were the first words that were spoken between this father and daughter and after 10 minutes of chatting Megan felt as though she had known this man her whole life. Through the sadness in his voice she could tell that he was running from pain but then the spark in his eyes when he spoke to Megan bought him to life. Bruce didn’t want to startle Megan by flooding her with too much information so he asked her she would mind if he bought his puppy tomorrow for the animals to play together. Megan being an animal lover herself could not say no and so that is how a long-lost father and daughter became friends, then family and over the next few months Bruce came to know the daughter he had lost through deception and lies all those years ago.

Twelve weeks exactly to the day after walking their dogs together each morning and talking about life Bruce found the courage to tell Megan he was her father. He had spent so much time and money searching for her and though he had no idea how she would react he was hopeful Megan would listen with an open heart and mind. She did after all have so many of her mother qualities and Bruce hoped understanding was one of them. This day was like every other day at 6am, the only difference was that now concealed in his jacket was the little black notebook Bruce had found hidden in his wife’s closet a year ago, the little black notebook filled with all the lies and deception Barbara had planned to ensure Bruce had no choice but to turn to her in his time of grief, the little black book that proved she stole Megan from Violet and took her out of the hospital wrapped in a blanket and left her in a box for a stranger to find.

Bruce seemed nervous Megan thought as he handed her a hot coffee. She noticed his hands were shaking and there was a slight sweat on his brow but as she threw the ball for the dogs to chase she didn’t give it second thought. Megan had now grown fond of her morning with Bruce, even though he was older than her they connected on a higher level and she loved their intellectual chats, but on this day the chat they were about to have would change her life forever.

Megan could see the black notebook in her father’s hand and even though she did not know the content of the book she had a gut feeling this was the cause of Bruce’s pain and torment.

Megan listened intently over the next months as Bruce slowly told the story if his past. She now knew Violet was the only woman he ever truly loved and on the night she died a part of Bruce died too. Megan sat listening to the pain in his voice as Bruce told her how he lost his infant baby at birth, she felt pain for him in her own heart. So as Bruce patiently pieced together the tale of his past he slowly began to explain to Megan in detail about who he was, why he had to find her and why the black notebook he had now placed in her hand was hers to read, keep and when the time was right hers to divulge the contents written inside.

And so, he began his tale……

One-year earlier Bruce had walked into the room sized closet his wife Barbara occupied and saw that her jewelry safe was open. Now normally Bruce would not think twice about looking into the contents of the safe but since he had found Barbara only the previous week downstairs in his office going through his paperwork he was curious himself as to what she kept hidden from him and why the need for secrecy.

Bruce found the black notebook at the back of the safe behind the revolver and her diamonds. It was a notebook he had seen many years before and instantly a feeling of horror washed over him as he sat on the floor reading the contents. It was Violets diary.

In Violets diary Barbara wrote entries about the number of doses of poison she fed into Violets drip while in hospital, all dates corresponded with the weeks before Violet passed and as he turned a page to keep reading a photo of Bruce and Violet smiling under the Eiffel tower fell out onto the floor. Bruce sat shaking in disbelief and horror as he read the dates written explaining how the baby had been removed from the hospital and left next to a dumpster. He realized now he was reading about his and Violet’s baby, the baby she named Megan as she took her last breath, the baby the kind supportive nurse Barbara told him had passed.

Within a second Bruce had dropped the diary and ran to the bathroom to throw up. The shock and numbness oozed from his pores as he sat on the floor shaking smelling of vomit. He could not believe the words on the pages but knew they were true. This explained why Barbara was so insistent to marry and start a family so quickly. He didn’t want, he wasn’t in love with her but Bruce was gripped with so much grief he just agreed.

As the words jumped off the page through Megan’s mind she sat in shock with tears falling down her cheeks. Violet had made sure her father would never find her and the only reason he did was because when Megan was found wrapped in her blanket she had a hospital bracelet on her wrist with ‘Megan’ written on it. This is what she was called when she was found and this was what she was always known as. Bruce had spent all his time and money to find her and knew only one name to look for … ‘Megan’.

It took time for both Bruce and Megan to fully understand but to them they seemed to know the truth from their first meeting. She saw it in his eyes just as he did hers. She knew he was her father and he knew without a doubt she was his daughter. She did not want to know why a woman could be so evil as to take her away from her father but she knew one day she would have the chance to know why.

Megan learned overtime she had siblings and through the sadness of knowing her father had a terminal illness she hoped to meet them one day. To her surprise unexpectedly her father handed her a cheque for $20,000 one morning and he asked Megan to do one thing with it.

Use the money to expose Barbara, have an article featuring the diary written in the New York times to expose her step mother after her father had passed.

And that is exactly what she would do.