I had always believed my father’s will would secure my future. But as the lawyer read through the document, a name I didn’t recognize shattered that illusion.
Brenna.
My grandmother, Loretta, reacted instantly, her fury filling the silent office.
“Who is Brenna?!” she demanded, her sharp voice cutting through the air like a blade.
The lawyer remained composed, adjusting his glasses before answering.
“Brenna is your father’s other daughter,” he stated, his voice measured.
I felt the ground shift beneath me. “His what?”
“You’re lying!” Loretta spat, her face red with anger. “My son would never—”
The lawyer sighed. “It’s no mistake, Mrs. Delacroix. Your son left clear instructions. Brenna inherits everything—his estate, his accounts, his stocks.”
I barely registered the words. My father had another daughter? A sister I never knew existed?
Loretta’s grip tightened on my wrist, her nails digging into my skin. “We’ll fix this, Mona,” she whispered, her voice shaking with suppressed rage. “We’ll find this girl and make sure she does what’s right.”
I nodded because defying my grandmother had never been an option.
Days later, I arrived at Brenna’s house. It was nothing like the grand home I had grown up in. The small cottage leaned slightly to one side, its chipped paint and uneven steps showing years of wear.
Before I could knock, the door creaked open, revealing a young woman with wide, curious eyes. She was smiling—open, unguarded.
“Hi!” she said cheerfully. “You must be Mona. You parked by the mailbox, right? It’s wobbly. I keep meaning to fix it, but…” She trailed off, tapping the wooden doorframe three times before stepping back.
Her strange little ritual made me hesitate.
“Come in!” she continued, waving me inside. “Watch the floorboard by the kitchen—it squeaks.”
I stepped into the house, my senses immediately overwhelmed. The air smelled of earth and clay, the wooden table in the center of the room covered in half-finished pottery, jars of paint, and an assortment of sculpting tools.
She moved to the windowsill, adjusting a set of mismatched vases. Three times. She muttered something under her breath, then nodded as if satisfied.
“You’re my sister,” she finally said, looking at me expectantly.
“Yes,” I replied cautiously. “Our father… he passed away recently.”
Her smile didn’t waver. “What’s it like?” she asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Having a dad,” she clarified.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. How could I possibly explain?
“He was kind,” I finally said. “He cared. We were friends.”
She nodded, pressing her hands together. “I never met him. But I have his hands.” She held up her palms, dusted with dried clay. “Mom always said so. Big hands, like his.”
Her sincerity disarmed me. I had expected resentment. Bitterness. But instead, she was… open.
“He left me a gift,” she said.
I stiffened.
“A gift?” I echoed.
She nodded. “The lawyer called it that. Did he leave you one too?”
I hesitated. “Not really.”
Her brows furrowed slightly, as if trying to solve a puzzle. “That’s strange. Everyone should get a gift.”
She rocked on her heels for a moment before brightening. “You should stay for a week!” she announced. “Tell me about him. What he liked to eat. What his voice sounded like.”
“A week?” I stammered, taken aback.
“In return, I’ll share the gift,” she said, her fingers twisting together anxiously. “It’s only fair.”
I didn’t know what she meant, but against all logic, I found myself nodding. “Okay. A week.”
Her whole face lit up. “Good! We can have pancakes. But only if you like them.”
That week changed everything.
I had never met anyone like Brenna.
She walked barefoot through the grass, saying the earth felt better that way. She rearranged plates on the railing every morning, aligning them perfectly before she could eat. She counted her steps, hummed while she worked, and spoke in riddles that somehow made perfect sense.
And she made pottery. Beautiful, intricate pieces that told stories without words.
On my third day, she handed me a lump of clay. “Here. Try making something.”
I frowned, feeling the weight of the cool earth in my hands. “I don’t know how.”
She shrugged. “Neither did I. Until I did.”
I tried. My first attempt was awful, the clay slipping through my fingers in a lumpy mess.
“It’s terrible,” I groaned.
“It’s not terrible,” she corrected, her hands gently reshaping the clay. “It’s just new. New things take time.”
She was patient with me in a way no one had ever been.
But the calls from Loretta grew more frequent, her tone sharper each time.
“Mona,” she hissed one evening, “what are you waiting for? This isn’t a vacation. You need to convince that girl to sign over what’s rightfully yours!”
I swallowed hard, staring out at the quiet lake behind Brenna’s house.
“She doesn’t deserve that money,” Loretta continued. “She’s naïve, Mona. She doesn’t know what to do with it. Persuade her. If persuasion doesn’t work, use her trust against her. Do whatever it takes.”
The words made me feel sick.
For the first time in my life, I started questioning everything.
The next day, Loretta arrived unannounced.
“This is where you’ve been hiding?” she snapped, her eyes sweeping over the cozy but cluttered studio in disgust. “How can you stand this mess?”
Brenna froze, her hands trembling. “Gift,” she whispered, pointing to a small cabinet in the corner.
Loretta ignored her, turning to me. “Mona, end this nonsense. She doesn’t deserve your father’s legacy.” She sneered. “She’s not like us.”
I had heard enough.
I crossed the room and opened the cabinet Brenna had pointed to. Inside was a stack of letters—worn, yellowed, addressed to my father.
“What are these?” I asked.
Brenna’s voice was barely a whisper. “Letters. From my mom. She wrote to him. But he never wrote back.”
I turned to Loretta. “Did you know?”
She paled but quickly recovered. “I did what I had to! I wouldn’t let some woman trap my son with a broken child. I told her to stay away. To leave him alone!”
I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
“You lied to him,” I whispered. “You stole his choice. His family.”
Loretta’s face twisted in anger. “And now you’re letting her take everything!”
“No,” I said, my voice steady. “I’m letting her have what should have been hers all along.”
Loretta stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Silence filled the room.
Brenna stared at me. “Does this mean we can still have pancakes?”
A laugh bubbled up from my chest, unexpected and real. “Yeah, Brenna. It does.”
From that day, we built a life together.
We fixed up the house, expanded the pottery studio, and filled the rooms with art and laughter.
Word spread, and soon people traveled from other towns to buy our work.
For the first time, I wasn’t living to meet someone else’s expectations.
I was living for us—Brenna and me.
My sister. My family.
And that was the greatest gift of all.