He grabbed his phone and dialed his father. Taylor answered cheerily, as if he had been waiting for the call. “Kate!
Did you get my package?
I wanted to give you something special.”
Taylor chuckled softly. “Don’t worry.
It’s just a timer—it’s supposed to open on your anniversary. Nothing dangerous.”
Josh yanked the phone from Kate’s hand.
“What’s in the box, Dad?
Something illegal? Are you trying to drag us into your mess again?” His voice cracked with anger. “Please, Josh,” Taylor said, his tone suddenly weary.
“It’s only a gift.
I mean no harm.”
After a long pause, Josh hung up. Kate touched his arm gently.
“Let’s open it together,” she whispered. Josh reluctantly nodded, and Kate resumed recording on her phone.
He pried the box open.
Inside was a check. Not a trinket, not a card—a check for $100,000. Josh stared at it as though it might catch fire.
“What kind of game is this?” he muttered.
“There’s no way this money is clean.”
Before they could discuss it further, Taylor called again. Kate answered.
His voice was softer now, almost broken. “I’m dying,” he admitted.
“I know I was a terrible father.
I made mistakes, too many to count. But that money—it’s for you, for Emily. For her education.
If Josh doesn’t want it, keep it anyway.
Nobody has to know it came from me.”
Kate swallowed hard. She looked at Josh, whose face was a storm of fury, confusion, and grief.
For years he had convinced himself that cutting his father out was the only way to stay safe, the only way to protect his family. But Taylor’s voice carried a weight that couldn’t be ignored.
Josh took the phone.
“If you’re serious, no more games,” he said. “We’ll meet. One time.
And you’ll tell me the truth.”
They agreed to meet at a park where Josh and Kate often took Emily.
The day of, Josh was tense, his hands restless. Taylor arrived looking nothing like the man Josh remembered.
He was frail, shoulders hunched, his hair thinned. He walked slowly toward them, eyes full of regret.
Josh clenched his jaw.
Years of anger rose in him, but so did something else: a deep longing for closure. “It’s not easy, Dad,” he said finally. “But maybe… maybe we can try.
For Emily.
So she knows her grandfather wasn’t just a shadow.”
Kate, sensing the heaviness of the moment, unpacked the picnic basket she had brought along. Sandwiches, fruit, juice boxes for Emily.
It gave them something to focus on besides years of bitterness. Emily toddled across the blanket, giggling, and Taylor’s eyes filled with tears as he watched her.
When they left the park that afternoon, Josh squeezed Kate’s hand.
He wasn’t smiling exactly, but something in him had eased. “Maybe it’s good that pillow showed up,” he said quietly. It wasn’t forgiveness, not yet.
But it was a start.
