Chapter 6 — Why Noah Left the Envelope
Rebecca looked toward Noah.
“Why didn’t you just come speak to us?”
Noah looked uncomfortable.
“I almost left.”
He had arrived before the memorial began.
Then he saw photographs of Henry surrounded by family.
Rebecca.
Thomas.
Grandchildren.
Former students.
Noah suddenly felt like an intruder.
“I knew a version of him you didn’t.”
Rebecca smiled sadly.
“Apparently.”
Noah had brought the envelope because Henry gave him one final instruction months earlier.
“If Grant ever shows up pretending we’re old friends, don’t let my family believe I simply walked away from Field 4.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Dad knew Grant might attend?”
“He assumed he would.”
Henry had never asked Noah to embarrass Grant publicly.
He simply wanted Rebecca to know the truth if Grant attempted to rewrite the past.
Noah wrote the card himself.
Then placed it on the memorial table.
“I was too nervous to hand it to you.”
Thomas asked:
“And when Grant walked in?”
Noah laughed nervously.
“I forgot about being subtle.”
Rebecca looked toward the security footage again.
The mysterious envelope had seemed ominous.
But Noah was not trying to create a scandal.
He was trying to preserve one piece of Henry’s story.
The reason Henry stopped going somewhere he had loved.
And the reason he started quietly helping teenagers somewhere else.