When My Heart Stops, I'll Give It To You

Dear Vanessa and Rebecca,

I have to leave.

I am so sorry. But you and your mother are not safe with me still here. Rebecca, don't show Ness this until she turns 17. And if they is a boy named Christopher Carrow do not let her near him. He is the reason I am leaving, and so will Nessa if she doesn't stay away from him.

My absence might not even change a thing, for it is Nessa he wants.

Stay away from him. Stay SAFE.

P.S. Do not try to find me, by the time you read this I will be long gone.

Love, Daniel.

A tear slid down my face and made the ink paper blotchy. Why now? How come I had to wait for a sign from him for so long? When he left, I was 10. That was 7 years ago when he left. But my mother told me he was 31 when he left, right now he'd be about 38. That's way too young of an age to die at...

And what did he mean by stay away from Christopher? He was the new kid in class. Completly harmless.

I found myself wanting to hang out with Christopher, just to make my dad mad. He deserved it, he left my mom and I alone. But no matter how much I hate him I still wonder if he's alive, or if this whole letter was a lie. A dumb, made up excuse to leave us.

I had no answers. All he told me, out of all the things he could, was to stay away from Christopher. And him. He didn't want me to find him.

Yes, after all he did to me and my mom, I'm going to do the complete opposite of what he told me.

I'm going to date Christopher Carrow.