The Last Letter

Winter came quietly to Pine Hollow. The rocking chair on Margaret’s porch gathered frost, the house still dark and silent. Most people had stopped talking about her, convinced the mystery would never be solved.

Then, one morning, the sheriff’s office received a plain envelope with no return address. Inside was a single page, written in Margaret’s shaky handwriting.

“To those who worried about me,” it began, “know that I was not afraid. My child was not a curse, but a gift I was never meant to understand. Daniel only wanted to protect me. By the time you read this, we will be far away, living in peace. Please, let the world believe whatever it must. For us, this is not the end—but the beginning.”

The letter was unsigned, but at the bottom was a small drawing of a cradle with a tiny heart inside.

Peace or Mystery