The night before the 4th of July, I stayed late in my office, pretending I had work to do. One unexpected call about my foster sister’s inheritance forced me to leave the city and face a truth I wasn’t ready for.
I was sitting in the office, clutching a mug of cold coffee. The huge windows gave me away completely.
Who in their right mind stays late in a skyscraper the night before the Fourth of July?
My boss, Michael, poked his head around the door.
“Yeah.
Just catching up on emails…”
He tossed a box of my own cookies onto my desk.
“You’re banned from working tonight and tomorrow. Take it and go watch the fireworks like a normal person.”
“Mike, I really don’t…”
“No excuses. It’s Independence Day.
Even you deserve it.”
I left the office with the box of cookies and stepped onto a half-empty street, breathing in the warm evening air. Everyone had already left. Some were at the lake with friends, others at barbecues with kids.
My messages were overflowing with family photos I wasn’t part of.
I was alone in a big city that felt emptier with every passing hour.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. An unknown number.
“My name is Andrew K. I’m an attorney for Cynthia B.”
I froze in the lobby.
Cynthia… Cynthia, who used to wipe my tears at night when they shuffled me from one family to another, and then back again.
Cynthia, who, once we were grown, threw herself into her wild quest to find her father, drifting further and further from me every year.
She used to say, “I won’t die until I find him!”
But after that… she just disappeared.
I already knew the answer, but asked anyway.
“I’m afraid she passed away last week. She named you in her will.
I’ll need you to come in for the reading.”
I wandered through the city without even noticing where I was going. The first fireworks began blooming in the night sky, but I couldn’t have cared less.
