Taken: Day 16

Word Count: 96,061

Summary of Events:

Mitchell learned from one of his coworkers over lunch that there was a letter for him at the post office — not that his coworker knew that the letter belonged to him because he employed an alias — and fetched it. As he'd suspected, it was from his parents, but its contents were not expected at all; reports of the faked assault on Odessa Edgar had reached his hometown, and his parents informed him that, as a result of his behaviours — as alleged by Odessa — he was not welcome home for Thanksgiving, or any other time for that matter . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Know also that your siblings and their spouses are in one accord with us. They also will not welcome you into their homes. They have no desire to associate with you in your baseness.

If you wish to see any of us again — and we pray you do — then it is imperative that you humble yourself before God, who knows what you have done and will hold it against you for eternity if you do not humble yourself, and repent of your sins before Him, for He is not an unforgiving God, and if you genuinely seek His forgiveness He will not withhold it from you.

Do not attempt to lie to us. We know how you live, and we will be able to tell whether you have genuinely repented before God or not, and only when we see that you have admitted your wrongdoing to He who knows all things — even the secrets and mysteries we will never know — will we, too, follow the example of our God who forgives, and forgive you, and welcome you back within our home, as the lost son who has now been found.

Our prayers continue for you, that your soul would be counted among the saved, and we pray that the young woman will find it within her heart to forgive you as well.

Do not forget that we love you, but understand that it is because we love you that we must do this. Love may not keep any record of wrongs, but that does not mean that it absolves them without repentance. We will forgive you when you repent before God, but not before then.

May God bless you and have mercy on you,

Orval Becker

Mitchell felt numb as he stared at the pages. Tears flowed down his cheeks, but he didn’t really feel them, the deep, sore ache of his breastbone was much more acute. The story had reached all the way to Texas, and what was worse, Papa and Mama believed it.

They believed that he’d left Odessa bleeding, wounded, and traumatised; they believed that he was a criminal.

Mitchell let the letter fall to the floor and dropped his face into his hands. His body convulsed with sobs of the deepest anguish and pain he’d ever felt. He had never felt such a deep pain in his life as he felt now.

His family had completely rejected him; what’s worse, they’d rejected him entirely on falsehoods. They had believed the lies that had been smeared all over him.

To prove his innocence now was an even more desperate endeavour. He had to prove his innocence so that his parents realised that they’d been lied to by others.