The recording ended.
For several minutes, I couldn’t speak.
Finally, I looked at Rebecca.
“Did she really plan all this?”
Rebecca nodded.
“She’d been talking about that place for months. Finding you again made her more determined.”
“But I didn’t even recognize her.”
“She didn’t need you to,” Rebecca whispered. “She was happy you became the man she remembered.”
That night, I returned home and listened to Alicia’s recording again.
Then again.
For the first time since her death, I understood why she had smiled when I told her my childhood stories.
Why she had asked so many questions.
And why, during our wedding, she whispered, “You finally kept your promise.”
Three months later, I visited the seaside property with Rebecca.
It was smaller than I expected, with peeling paint and an overgrown garden.
But the windows faced the ocean.
Over the following year, Rebecca and I worked with the charity to renovate it into a welcoming retreat for children undergoing medical treatment and their families.
