Sealed Within

I heard my parents arguing over my dad flirting with other women once again. I put my headphones on and cranked up the volume to drown out their voices. The next morning, I came downstairs to find dad crying on the couch with a letter in his hand. I was scared to ask what had happened.

“Dad, where’s mom?”

“She’s gone,” he said, handing over the letter to me.

Mom had told dad that she could not stand to be around him anymore, and that she had to leave. The second half of her letter was addressed to me:

Dear Sienna,

I’m so sorry for leaving you like this. I just want you to know that none of this is your fault. I just can’t take this anymore. Be safe, honey. I’ll miss you.

Love,

Mom

I did not believe that it was written by mom. I asked dad if he had written it himself after asking her to leave, but he denied it. I knew mom; she would have never left like that. Dad was a liar.

Not even three months later, dad started dating another woman. Things moved so fast that they were married in a year. But then the same issues started again. Dad and my stepmom had constant fights about him flirting with other women, and one morning, history repeated itself. My stepmom had allegedly left a letter and abandoned us.

“Stop lying! You’re the one writing these letters!”

Dad kept denying it, and I decided that I had dealt with enough as well. A year later, I moved out of the house when I turned eighteen and found my own place, far away from where he was. By that time, he was already dating another woman. A year later, one of my friends who were still in the same neighbourhood said that the latest wife had also left him.

What hurt more than anything was the fact that mom never reached out to either of us afterwards, and neither did my stepmom. I contacted their close friends, but none of them had heard from them since their departure from our house. It was strange. Deep in my mind, I began to question whether dad had done something to them, but that could not be true. He was a flirt, yes, but murder? He could never do that. At least that’s what I wanted to believe.

Two more years passed by and dad was killed in a car accident. I received a call from his lawyer. Dad had left me the house, if ever I wished to return. He had also left me a sealed letter. Half of me feared what it would say; I wondered whether it was the confession of a killer, but it was not.

Dear Sienna,

I’m so sorry that things turned out the way they did. I’m sorry I was both a horrible husband to your mom and stepmoms and also a horrible father to you. You shouldn’t have had to endure all that. I know I can’t take back what I’ve done, but I want you to know that those letters weren’t written by me. I swear to you that I found them lying on my desk those mornings.

I miss you…

Love,

Dad

A month passed before I finally mustered the courage to move back into my old home. Cleaning the entire place, I came across something odd in the attic. There were three ceramic dolls on an old table. The table was an antique that dad had inherited from his mom. I picked one of the dolls up and took a closer look; oddly enough, it resembled mom. When I tried to place it back on the table, however, the doll slipped through my fingers and shattered upon hitting the floor. A grey mist sprang from it and I was suddenly facing mom herself. The shock made me tremble and move back, knocking against the table and dropping the other two dolls as well. The same thing happened with them, and suddenly, both of my stepmoms were before me.

“What… Mom? How is this possible?”

The three of them looked at each other and at me and were speechless as they struggled to catch their breath.

“I don’t know, honey. I don’t think any of us do,” mom said.

The room then suddenly grew colder and darker. “It was me.”

We turned around to find the ghost of dad’s mother before us. “Grandma? But why?”

“My son was a fool. He married your mom against my wishes and then kept on flirting with more women. I was trying to teach him a lesson, but he never learned a thing.”

I was furious at her, but there was still something I wished to confirm. “Did dad know?”

“No, he didn’t. I trapped these women while they were asleep and wrote the letters myself.”

I was about to yell when grandma suddenly disappeared. She caused so much pain and grief and just like that, she was gone. But at least I was glad that I was reunited with mom. The four of us there shared a group hug and had some tea after going downstairs. Everyone was sad to hear of dad’s passing. Mom and I said goodbye to my ex-stepmoms that evening, but we all stayed in touch even after.