Three days later, Daniel and I were driving north before sunrise.<\/p>\n
Maryanne had offered to tell me everything by telephone. I declined.<\/p>\n
Forty-two years deserved more than a voice coming through a speaker.<\/p>\n
Daniel insisted on driving the twelve-hour route. Janice packed sandwiches as though we were crossing an ocean. The shoebox rode on the back seat between two overnight bags.<\/p>\n
Illinois gave way to Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
By afternoon the landscape changed. Pines thickened along the highway. The air beyond the cracked window became cooler.<\/p>\n
Then Lake Superior appeared.<\/p>\n
I had seen photographs, but nothing prepared me for its scale. Gray water stretched toward the horizon beneath a low ceiling of clouds.<\/p>\n
Somewhere along that shore, Thomas had become a man before I ever knew him.<\/p>\n
Daniel kept both hands on the wheel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood. Me neither.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne lived in a small white cottage with blue shutters.<\/p>\n
The irony almost made me laugh.<\/p>\n
She opened the door before we reached the porch.<\/p>\n
She was seventy-one, slim, silver-haired, and visibly terrified.<\/p>\n
For one suspended second we simply looked at each other.<\/p>\n
I had imagined this woman too many ways during the previous weeks.<\/p>\n
Seductress.<\/p>\n
Abandoned lover.<\/p>\n
Secret mistress.<\/p>\n
Victim.<\/p>\n
Accomplice.<\/p>\n
None survived the reality of the elderly woman standing before me in soft house shoes with one hand trembling against the doorframe.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re Ruth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her gaze moved to Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019re Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stiffened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne\u2019s eyes filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known about you since the day you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n
That hurt him.<\/p>\n
I saw it.<\/p>\n
She saw it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded without answering.<\/p>\n
Maryanne invited us inside.<\/p>\n
The cottage smelled faintly of cinnamon, paper, and furniture polish. Photographs covered one wall.<\/p>\n
A dark-haired girl at seven.<\/p>\n
The same girl graduating high school.<\/p>\n
Wedding photographs.<\/p>\n
A woman holding a newborn.<\/p>\n
Birthday cakes.<\/p>\n
Christmas trees.<\/p>\n
A young man in a college sweatshirt.<\/p>\n
Emily.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
Maryanne noticed me studying the pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s forty-seven now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The number stopped me.<\/p>\n
I had calculated roughly, but hearing it spoken made Emily real in a new way.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe lives nearby?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTen minutes away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes she know we\u2019re here?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still haven\u2019t told her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know how.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had forty-seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Mom. Dad had forty-seven years too. Everybody had decades except us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne absorbed that without defending herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has every right to be angry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
We sat in her living room.<\/p>\n
She served tea nobody drank.<\/p>\n
I placed the old photograph on the table.<\/p>\n
Maryanne covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Her composure broke instantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Tommy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time I had heard another woman use the name I called my husband in private.<\/p>\n
A sharp, unreasonable jealousy passed through me.<\/p>\n
Then I watched her touch the edge of the photograph, not Thomas\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou took it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a timer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her finger moved toward the infant.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily was eight months old.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked the question I had carried twelve hours north.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho were you to my husband?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the woman he intended to marry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room became very still.<\/p>\n
She began at nineteen.<\/p>\n
Thomas had spent part of his childhood in Minnesota before his family relocated to Illinois. Years later, family circumstances brought him back to Duluth, where he worked with relatives and delivered supplies for his uncle\u2019s hardware business.<\/p>\n
Maryanne\u2019s father was a carpenter.<\/p>\n
Thomas found reasons to deliver lumber there more often than necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he was showing off,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably was.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know how he got when he wanted to prove he could fix something?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe once repaired our porch step without asking because he wanted my father to like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds even more like Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, we laughed together.<\/p>\n
It felt disloyal and strangely comforting at once.<\/p>\n
They fell in love.<\/p>\n
At twenty-two they bought the blue bungalow.<\/p>\n
The house was inexpensive, badly maintained, and painted a shade of blue Maryanne described as impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
Thomas repaired the roof himself.<\/p>\n
Maryanne planted flowers beneath the front windows.<\/p>\n
They planned to marry there.<\/p>\n
Then she became pregnant.<\/p>\n
Thomas proposed formally even though they already considered themselves committed.<\/p>\n
His parents opposed the marriage.<\/p>\n
Maryanne came from a working-class family. Thomas\u2019s parents believed she wanted financial security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were wrong,\u201d Maryanne said. \u201cBut frightened people can become very certain about things they don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas ignored them.<\/p>\n
He intended to marry her anyway.<\/p>\n
Then his father suffered a catastrophic stroke.<\/p>\n
The family building business was already carrying debt. Without his father, contracts failed. Creditors arrived. Thomas\u2019s mother became overwhelmed caring for her husband.<\/p>\n
Thomas stepped into the wreckage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thought he could save everyone,\u201d Maryanne said.<\/p>\n
I almost smiled.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
That was Thomas.<\/p>\n
He repaired neighbors\u2019 roofs for free when they could not pay. He drove thirty miles to change Daniel\u2019s flat tire when our son was thirty-eight and perfectly capable of changing it himself.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s greatest strength and greatest weakness had always been the same conviction: if something was broken, he was personally responsible for fixing it.<\/p>\n
His wedding to Maryanne kept being postponed.<\/p>\n
One month became three.<\/p>\n
Three became six.<\/p>\n
Emily was born.<\/p>\n
Thomas divided himself between his infant daughter, his parents, and the collapsing business.<\/p>\n
Then Maryanne developed health complications.<\/p>\n
She needed specialist treatment closer to Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
Thomas could not immediately leave Duluth.<\/p>\n
His father could barely move.<\/p>\n
His mother was exhausted.<\/p>\n
Employees depended on him.<\/p>\n
The business owed money secured against family property.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him to stay,\u201d Maryanne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought temporarily.\u201d<\/p>\n
She moved with baby Emily.<\/p>\n
Thomas promised to follow once he stabilized the business.<\/p>\n
Then his parents made the situation worse.<\/p>\n
If Thomas abandoned the company, they threatened to cut him off and allow creditors to seize everything tied to it.<\/p>\n
The blue house was vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Maryanne feared Emily would lose the only asset they possessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you gave Thomas your share?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he could protect it more easily through the business arrangements his lawyer created.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about the later property transfer.<\/p>\n
For weeks it had looked sinister.<\/p>\n
Now it looked desperate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened after that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne went to a bookshelf and removed a bundle of letters.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s handwriting covered the first envelope.<\/p>\n
She let me read.<\/p>\n
He begged her for time.<\/p>\n
He promised to solve the debts.<\/p>\n
He told her he loved her and Emily.<\/p>\n
He intended to come.<\/p>\n
But Maryanne\u2019s medical condition worsened.<\/p>\n
Her mother moved her again.<\/p>\n
Letters were delayed.<\/p>\n
Addresses changed.<\/p>\n
Pride entered where exhaustion had already weakened them.<\/p>\n
Then Maryanne made a decision she had regretted ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him not to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause every letter from him sounded more desperate. His father needed full-time care. His mother was falling apart. The company employed twelve families. And Thomas kept trying to save us too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you released him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne wiped beneath one eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself love sometimes meant stepping away.\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard Janice\u2019s voice in my head asking whether I wanted to understand Thomas or condemn him.<\/p>\n
Understanding had become more painful than condemnation.<\/p>\n
A villain would have been easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Emily?\u201d Daniel asked.<\/p>\n
Maryanne stared at her hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the worst choice of my life there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had told Emily that her father was a young man who had been unable to remain with them. Later, when Emily became old enough to ask details, Maryanne allowed her to believe he had disappeared completely.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Thomas had started a new life by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith me,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne stood and brought another letter.<\/p>\n
It was dated roughly a decade after their separation.<\/p>\n
Thomas had finally located her.<\/p>\n
By then, he and I were married.<\/p>\n
Daniel was an infant.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened as I read.<\/p>\n
Thomas told Maryanne about me.<\/p>\n
He told her about Daniel.<\/p>\n
He apologized for finding her too late.<\/p>\n
He asked whether Emily needed anything.<\/p>\n
Maryanne answered.<\/p>\n
That correspondence began the arrangement I had discovered.<\/p>\n
No visits.<\/p>\n
No secret romance.<\/p>\n
No telephone conversations.<\/p>\n
No interference with Thomas\u2019s marriage.<\/p>\n
Financial support for Emily when necessary.<\/p>\n
And the blue house would remain untouched.<\/p>\n
Thomas rented the property and sent a share of its income toward Emily\u2019s expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what the money orders were?\u201d Daniel asked.<\/p>\n
Maryanne nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly education costs at first. Later I told him we didn\u2019t need them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he kept sending them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed through the ache in my throat.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did, Ruth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The certainty in her voice irritated me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get to tell me that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood and walked toward the window.<\/p>\n
Outside, hydrangeas bent beneath the wind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand why you separated. I understand why he helped Emily. I can even understand the house. What I cannot understand is why neither of you told us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne\u2019s answer came quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas let me believe I knew the shape of our life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel grew up believing he was his father\u2019s only child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Emily grew up believing her father abandoned her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne began crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked away.<\/p>\n
I sat again because anger was becoming too easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Thomas ever see Emily after you left?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he ask?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy refuse?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I thought once he appeared, everything would unravel. She would want him. He would want her. You would discover us. Daniel would be hurt. I convinced myself keeping the boundaries firm protected everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Thomas agreed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
That word mattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne looked toward the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany times.\u201d<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
She explained that Thomas periodically wrote that secrecy had become unbearable. He worried that if he died first, I would discover the house through estate documents.<\/p>\n
Each time he considered confessing, another life event intervened.<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s adolescence.<\/p>\n
My father\u2019s illness.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
Our financial troubles.<\/p>\n
Then grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Then cancer.<\/p>\n
Excuses became years.<\/p>\n
Years became decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was going to bring you here this spring,\u201d Maryanne said.<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wrote in March. He said he was done hiding it. He wanted to show you the house and tell you everything himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he became sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne nodded.<\/p>\n
I thought about his hospice note.<\/p>\n
If I don\u2019t make it to spring, Ruth must know about the house.<\/p>\n
The secret had not become smaller.<\/p>\n
But for the first time I could see Thomas standing on the other side of it, frightened rather than calculating.<\/p>\n
Daniel rose and walked toward the photograph wall.<\/p>\n
He stopped in front of Emily\u2019s graduation picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes she look like Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne joined him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe looks like his mother around the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes she have children?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne son. Noah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Dad had a grandson here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough photographs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel turned sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sent him pictures?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Dad send pictures of us?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne hesitated.<\/p>\n
Then she opened a cabinet.<\/p>\n
Inside were envelopes.<\/p>\n
Dozens.<\/p>\n
Daniel selected one.<\/p>\n
A photograph slipped out.<\/p>\n
He froze.<\/p>\n
It showed him at six years old holding a fishing pole.<\/p>\n
I remembered taking it.<\/p>\n
Thomas had been standing beside me.<\/p>\n
On the back was a note in his handwriting explaining that his little boy had caught his first bass.<\/p>\n
Daniel read it twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told her about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout everything he was proud of,\u201d Maryanne said.<\/p>\n
Daniel pressed his lips together.<\/p>\n
He was angry.<\/p>\n
He was also grieving a father who had apparently spent decades wishing two children could know one another while doing nothing courageous enough to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Then the front door opened.<\/p>\n
Maryanne went white.<\/p>\n
A woman\u2019s voice called from the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom? I brought those groceries you wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel and I looked at each other.<\/p>\n
Footsteps approached.<\/p>\n
A woman entered carrying two paper bags.<\/p>\n
Dark curls streaked with gray framed her face.<\/p>\n
She stopped when she saw us.<\/p>\n
For one dizzying instant I saw Thomas.<\/p>\n
Not literally.<\/p>\n
Something in the eyes.<\/p>\n
The way she tilted her head.<\/p>\n
The Bennett family expression when entering a room and sensing a problem.<\/p>\n
Emily smiled uncertainly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne could not speak.<\/p>\n
Emily set the groceries on a table.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne\u2019s hands shook.<\/p>\n
Emily looked at Daniel.<\/p>\n
Recognition of some unexplained familiarity moved across her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre these the relatives from Illinois you mentioned?\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at me.<\/p>\n
I understood immediately.<\/p>\n
Maryanne had prepared an excuse in case Emily arrived.<\/p>\n
But the time for excuses was over.<\/p>\n
I turned to Maryanne.<\/p>\n
She was crying now.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell her,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s smile vanished.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me what?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne reached for her daughter\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Emily pulled back, frightened by her mother\u2019s expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing happened today,\u201d Maryanne said. \u201cThis happened a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, you\u2019re scaring me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne looked at Daniel.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
Then at the old photograph on the coffee table.<\/p>\n
Emily followed her gaze.<\/p>\n
She picked it up.<\/p>\n
Her face changed when she recognized herself as the baby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s the man?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s breathing became audible beside me.<\/p>\n
Emily looked from her mother to the stranger who was, without knowing it, her brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne finally spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat man\u2019s name was Thomas Bennett.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was your father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
The grocery bag tipped sideways, and an orange rolled across the floor.<\/p>\n
Emily did not notice.<\/p>\n
Her gaze moved to me.<\/p>\n
Then Daniel.<\/p>\n
Then back to the photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne nodded.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s face emptied.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you said\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said he left.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI lied.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word seemed to cost Maryanne everything.<\/p>\n
Emily took one step backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are they?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryanne could not answer.<\/p>\n
So I did.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name is Ruth Bennett. Thomas was my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily stared at me.<\/p>\n
I turned toward Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is our son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s voice was barely above a whisper.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily looked at him.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, neither moved.<\/p>\n
Then she looked again at the photograph of the young father she had spent forty-seven years believing had abandoned her.<\/p>\n
Her hands began to shake.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the question none of us had prepared ourselves to hear.<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The photograph slipped from her fingers onto the carpet.<\/p>\n
She stared at the floor.<\/p>\n
A father she had never known existed had entered her life already dead.<\/p>\n
And as Maryanne reached toward her, Emily stepped away and asked the question that would force all of us to confront what Thomas\u2019s silence had actually cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he knew I existed all these years, why didn\u2019t he ever come for me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Three days later, Daniel and I were driving north before sunrise. Maryanne had offered to tell me everything by telephone. I declined. Forty-two years deserved more than a voice coming … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2664,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions\/2664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}