It had been two years since an accident killed my daughter Monica and her husband Stephen. I thought that. Grief had become a constant friend, a dull ache that would sometimes turn into a crippling heartache.

The next morning, I got a letter from someone I didn’t know. It said, “They’re not really gone.” The words burned into my mind, making me feel both hopeful and scared.

In

Nick and Andy, my grandsons, had a hard time dealing with the death of their parents. I could still feel their innocent questions about where Monica and Stephen were.

After the mysterious message in the letter, there was a strange credit card purchase on Monica’s old account. A virtual card that was made before she was thought to be dead was used at a nearby café.

I was sceptical but motivated, so I looked into it more. The details of the deal made the mystery even stronger.

A trip to the beach with Andy and Peter led to a surprise success. As they played, all of a sudden, they pointed to a couple that looked like Monica and Stephen.

As I walked along the shore with my heart beating, I watched the couple laugh and share moments that felt very familiar.

I called 911 with shaking hands. When the cops showed up, Monica and Stephen had to face their past as Emily and Anthony, the fake names they had taken.

Their story came out: they faked their own deaths to protect their children because they were in so much debt and were being harmed by loan sharks. But in the end, guilt and love made them go back.

It was sad to see each other again. I couldn’t help but ask myself, “At what cost?” as Monica hugged her boys with tears running down her face.

Monica and Stephen were arrested and taken away, leaving me to deal with the effects of what they did. How can I explain this hard-to-follow web to Andy and Peter?

The next night, I was by myself and holding the unidentified letter close to my chest. I said to myself, “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep the kids safe.”

But doubts stayed. What should I have done? Should I have kept my daughter’s lies safe or made her face the truth? The answer, like the person who wrote the letter, remained mysterious.

Would you have picked the same thing?