Virginia.
At the very bottom of the crate sat a worn folder.
Inside were documents dated more than sixty years back.
Slowly, the truth began to form.
Harold had been financially supporting a young woman and her baby after the child’s father abandoned them. Rent receipts. School payments. Medical bills. Quiet monthly support that had lasted for years.
He had saved every letter she ever wrote him.
Every single one.
I sat down on the cold concrete floor.
“Oh God,” I whispered.
“Harold… what have you done?”
At that moment, I heard tires crunch outside the garage.
A bicycle skidded to a stop.
When I looked up, the same girl from the funeral stood in the doorway, slightly out of breath.
“I thought you might come here,” she said.
“You followed me?”
She nodded. “I rode behind the taxi.”
My head spun.
“Who are you?” I asked. “How did you know my husband?”
“My name is Gini,” she said. “My mom’s name is Virginia.”
My heart skipped.
“Virginia?” I repeated.
She nodded.
“Harold used to visit us sometimes,” she said. “He helped my mom a lot.”
Then she hesitated.
“My mom is in the hospital right now,” she added quietly.
We went to see her that same night.
Virginia lay in a hospital bed, pale and weak, tubes running from her arm.
“She needs heart surgery,” Gini explained. “But we can’t afford it.”
When I spoke to the doctor in the hallway, he confirmed it.
Without the surgery, Virginia wouldn’t survive long.
Standing there, I suddenly understood why Harold had left me the key.
He had trusted me to finish what he started.
Two days later, I returned to the hospital with the money.
The surgery lasted six hours.
It was successful.
A week later, Virginia invited me to visit her home.
She showed me an old photo album.
Page after page told the story of a girl growing up.
Then I turned one more page.
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