第5章 第4節 母と娘
A love recorded and a secret revealed
There was little time, but Marion made Nora sit beside her.
"If I had stayed, they would have killed us both," she said.
Leaving had been the only way to keep her daughter alive.
"I have thought of you every single day," she whispered.
She had recorded her love on tape through all the empty years.
"If you had heard those tapes, you would have understood."
Nora wept, holding the thin hands in her own.
"I have hated you for leaving," she admitted at last.
"And I have missed you more than I can ever say."
Marion smiled through her own tears and touched Nora's face.
"There is one more thing you have to know," she said.
Edwin had once confessed his crime, not knowing he was recorded.
Marion had captured his voice on the master tape.
"If I had kept it in the open, he would have found it."
So she had the into two careful halves.
Nora already held the second from beneath the floor.
"But where is the first ?" she asked, leaning close.
Marion's answer was so quiet that Nora almost missed it.
"You have carried the first all your life," she said.
Nora stared, unable to understand the words.
"The , Nora. Your . The tape you have always kept."
"Beneath the music, his has been waiting for you."
The room seemed to , and the past rearranged itself.
If she had only listened closely, she would have known long ago.